Growing up I felt pretty much like an only child, even though I had a brother.

Since big brother Dan is older than me by over four-and-a-half years, we almost always moved in different circles:

• Dan, elementary school // me, home with Mom.
• Dan, high school // me, elementary school.
• Dan, full-time job // me, high school.

You get the picture. Speaking of pictures…

We never hung out with the same friends. We were never in the same school. We were scarcely even in the same house together!

He started his sportswriting career (albeit part-time) at the tender age of 12 for the small local paper, and then progressed to the big-city paper, the Montreal Star. After he moved out when he was 18, he was always covering various games: hockey, baseball, etc. He wasn’t a player himself, but sure was a heckuva writer.

The closest Dan and I ever came to being friends in our childhood was when – once in a blue moon – he and his pal across the hall wanted a third to play Monopoly™. Or when he took me along on his bicycle to go watch the fireworks on Victoria Day eve, sometime in the mid-1950s. Or… okay, so we were a duo sometimes.

As adults, we were working and busy with our respective families. Later on we both became single parents with our kids still in school, and  both of us were still working, so were super busy.

Occasionally we’d see each other at family get-togethers, here in Montreal or where they lived, across the St. Lawrence River, in the thriving town called Châteauguay. After a long while, with our parents gone, we’d only see each other on our birthdays, at various restaurants. Dan always came into Montreal for our visits, because I had developed a phobia about the very high/long bridge necessary to get to Châteauguay. Hmm, maybe I wrote a blog post about that. Let me check. Yes! I mentioned it here: https://elliepresner.com/2016/03/18/me-and-my-dad/.

These birthday exchange visits carried on for many years – until the pandemic hit. Covid threw a major monkey wrench into our established sibling relationship, such as it was. Until this fall!

Dan and Monique (his wonderful common-law spouse) invited me and John (my fabulous second husband) to their place for lunch for my birthday. But we can’t drive there, I said, sadly. We no longer have a car. (I’d had to say goodbye to my Tercel, so I could afford to retire. I wrote a short tribute to it here: https://elliepresner.com/2016/10/13/goodbye-my-love-notes-to-an-absent-automobile/. Gosh I loved that car. 😔) Too bad public transportation to their town is way too long and cumbersome.

Then Monique suggested that I invite my daughter, Kathryn, to drive us. She occasionally rents a Communauto ride-share car, when necessary. So my lovely girl, who hadn’t seen her uncle in years, said YES. Off we drove on October 6th, two days before my birthday, to drive to Châteauguay to visit Dan and Monique – whom we hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. We had a great time catching up, and Monique served up a delicious spaghetti primavera! Here are a few pics taken that day.

Next on the agenda just might be brunch in a Châteauguay restaurant – maybe Kathryn wouldn’t mind driving us there again. I can ask Monique if some of her grown kids can come too – it’s about time we met them! Always better late than never, huh? 🤗