SC, What wonderful stories!! It's amazing how much you realize that your family means as you get older.

When my grandfather came to America, he left his entire family behind in Sicily. My mother had never met any of them. After my grandfather died, my mother's family lost track of them. When we went to Italy on vacation in 1973, my mom wanted to go to Sicily to see the town where her parents were born. We didn't know that her father's brother was still alive, and that she had tons of first cousin's still alive. She wrote to the local priest about her upcoming visit, and he passed the word along to her family. When we got to the airport, there were 50 people waiting for us with huge banners bearing my mother's name.

We went back to her cousin's house, and they brought her uncle over. He had had a slight stroke, but he was still this brawny guy who obviously had worked on a farm all his life. He was a little confused as to what was going on, but after about a half hour, he really looked at my mom, and he said, "You're Anna? The daughter of my brother Leonardo?" and he started to cry.

It was one of the most moving things I've ever seen.