Zoom call

I began what I hope was a new tradition last Sunday. It was my first time doing this and time will tell if it will continue.

One of my Dad’s sisters (Sharon) had two kids. Michelle or Mickie/Mick, as we call her, is my age and her brother Chad (2 years younger) is my sister’s age. As kids, we spent a lot of time together. I almost felt like we were brothers and sisters to each other.

As each of grew up we all got married, some had kids and started careers. Naturally we drifted apart. Things changed in 2007. May 2007 (my sister’s birthday actually) my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. December of that year he passed away from it. My Aunt Sharon battled cancer as well and passed away on January 22, 2010. My Uncle Charles (Sonny) was next on January 30, 2013, then finally Mom on June 10, 2020. At that time of Mom’s visitation/funeral someone stated that my sister and I were orphans, like my cousins Chad and Mickie.

I borrowed an idea from a friend Laurie and tried a monthly Zoom call with the four of us calling it the Orphan Club. More on this soon. We had our first meeting this last Sunday at 9:30am on Zoom (free edition). I was about to set it up.

A bit of a background on each of us. Mickie is the oldest (not by much) and lives in Simpsonville, KY. I am next (also age 53) and live in Lanesville, Indiana. Chad is next in line at 50 and lives in Columbus, Ohio then my sister Susan that lives in a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky.

Mickie has two 18+ year old’s (boy and girl) and has been happily married for 20+ years. I have a boy who just turned 18 and I also have been happily married since 1999. Chad has no kids, but a wonderful husband Andrew (who he refers to as midget) and has been married for 8 years (together over 21). Susan has two teenagers and has been happily married for close to 25 years.

I chose the free version of Zoom which only allows for 40 minutes on calls. I set up the time date and sent the invites. As host I joined first. I waited and then saw my sister join from her van with one of my nephews behind her in the back seat. Her lips were moving, but I could not hear her. I asked if she could hear me, and she nodded. I told her on the settings to turn off mute. Soon my cousin Chad joined and said hello followed by “what the shit is Susan doing”. That was my aunt coming out in him. Soon Mick joined and was praising herself for “setting this up all by myself”. My cousin Mickie and Susan are technically challenged.

We began with talk of our kids, jobs and how each of us were doing. Not long into the meeting my sister said “hang on, I’ll be back”. Now she was in her van, the rest of us in an office or in my case at the kitchen table. Chad asked what she was doing and Susan said, “there is a fence and a lady is trying to climb it. There is an open see” and she flipped her camera around in front of her van to show us. “I want to tell her there is an opening down here.” Both Chad and Mickie blurted out “okay Wanita”. 100% a thing my Mom would have done, but she would have come back to know the lady’s name, where she lived and grew up and what school she went to. Likely who she was related to as well.

My Uncle Sonny was a lineman at an electric company and spent some time in the Navy. Not a sentence came out of his mouth that didn’t involve colorful language. My aunt, though not as bad, also had her share of ‘phrases’. As the call went on, I heard many of these ‘phrases’ come from both Chad and Mickie. Some they quickly acknowledged and recognized, others may have slipped through.

Time flew by and I let everyone know we had 40 minutes tops, so we chose a date for next month’s call and planned a face–to-face in July. Chad will drive down from Ohio to meet us and a restaurant will be our locale.

I almost forgot to mention the name. Chad objected, stating we were all over 50 years old and technically not orphans. Mickie jumped in and said “my Dad’s dead” who is also Chad’s Dad. I said “so is mine”. A few names were thrown out but eventually Chad gave up and said “fine whatever”. Mickie and I rejoiced in our victory!

Though the call was brief, it was great to see everyone (even though many of Susan’s shots were of her van ceiling, dashboard and out the window). Abruptly, 40 minutes after the call started, Zoom ended it. Mickie was in mid-sentence, as I recall. We finished the date discussion on text.

I hope we can continue this on. Time is short and these moments mean a lot. I really look forward to meeting face to face in July and in the future. If you don’t have something like this with family, friends or relative, consider it. Zoom is free (up to 100 people and 40 minutes), so there is no real excuse not to.

Until next time,

Tim (Kilmer)