For as long as I’ve living in my apartment building (and for many years before I moved in), there has always been at least one other member of my family also in possession of an apartment in the building.  My grandmother’s sister bought a small apartment in the building sometime in the late 1980’s.  Soon after, my great-aunt Flora moved into a two-bedroom on the 9th floor.  Up until recently, my great-aunt Belle’s sister lived somewhere on one of the upper floors as well.

These days just about every member of my grandmother’s generation is gone (except for Aunt Belle, she’s still kicking), but I still have family in the building.  My mom’s cousin Angie bought Flora’s apartment when she moved out (which is sometimes slightly weird.  As I exited the bathroom in her apartment tonight, I experienced a time warp, in which I thought I would be walking out of the hallway into the apartment as it was when Flora lived there.  It was a shock to turn the corner and find it so drastically different).  Coming home from class tonight I ran into Angie and her daughter Melissa in the lobby as they were coming in from a day at the movies.  They waited for me as I collected my mail and we rode up in elevator together.  I went home briefly, dumped the mail, heated up some soup and took my bowl back down to their apartment.  We sat and ate our leftovers together, me with my soup, Melissa with take out chinese and Angie with humus and carrots. It was really lovely to be with family and not have to even go outside.