At any rate, the Cousins were well satisfied and they agreed that it is a most singularly beautiful bracelet and when everything goes to hell I can sell my investment and eat for a month or so.
That night we went back to our lovely little home and ate hummus and chips and cheese and crackers and salami and olives and fruit and French bread and bottles of wine and we talked, as we do, about our grandparents and our uncles and our aunts and our ex-husbands and our grandchildren and suddenly Marilyn popped up and exlaimed, "Jesus, no wonder I'm not breathing! The goddamned thing's not even in my nose! It's on my chin!" And I looked at her and at the rest of my cousins and thought, these are the peoples of my life. They are essential. Funny, sometimes difficult, often zany, always courageous. To grow old means to lose what one has. I am not near ready to lose these women. I love them and I bless them. I hope the God I do not believe in will take mercy on me and love me anyway if He orShe is anywhere nearby and knows about my love and about any of my cousins and how much I hate it that I squander my love for them so freely and so loosely during so much of every single year until the time comes when we see each other again.
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