KATHLEEN. Ah! My dear cousin, Kathleen. You were born in England and I in America, both descendants of William and Mary Tucker, our grandparents. I remember as a small child a large picture of two small children, the little girl holding a doll, hanging prominently in the hall of their home in Detroit. I was told they were my cousins in England but at age six or seven the connection was obscure at best. We were separated by an ocean and even as a teenager the vagueness was still there. I think it was 1952 when you first came to visit us in America. Jewel met you then but I was at war in Korea and missed the chance. Twenty years flew by while we were preoccupied with raising our own families and making our way in the world before you came again, with Hedley. We had leisure time together, boating on Lake Michigan. And a bond began to form. Another dozen years passed before you and Hedley were boating with us again. It was almost two weeks this time, on an adventure from Fort Lauderdale to the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas. The bond deepened. In only three years you were cruising with us again, this time with Elaine for a week in Jamaica. You not only climbed the Dunns River Falls but even dared to go parasailing! It was about this time that we began our good-natured vendetta, exchanging derogatory comic cards ridiculing each other's advancing birthdays. Teasing was such fun, for me anyway, and I think for you too. You called me your "rotten cousin" and I gloried in the title. In 1996 we would meet again, in Pennsylvania this time, for your namesake niece's wedding. The following year you would come to America again when you and Elaine would join your American cousins for that grand and glorious reunion of Tucker descendants at Mackinac Island and Northwestern Michigan. The bond by then was cast in stone. The very next year it would be Jewel's and my turn to come to England, where we would enjoy the delightful experience of being with you and your entire family, all together at the same place and time. We also enjoyed a brief tour on our own to Salisbury, Wells, Bath and the land of our ancestors, Somerset. Wow! Three years in a row! Five years later we would be boating again in the Bahamas, this time with Anthony. You wouldn't admit it, but I had absolute proof on underwater video that you really were swimming without touching bottom. Three years later you were over here again and along with Anthony we had another grand visit to Mackinac Island. I remember you took a liking to a particular hat, which is also immortalized on film. The spring of 2007 would find us boating again. This time you brought Elaine and Peter. We cruised the entire chain of the Exuma Cays. Sadly, it would be our last meeting. So Kath, my dear cousin, you are now cruising the sea of everlasting serenity, and it won't be too long before I'll be joining you there. In the meantime you have left me with the fondest of fond memories and a heart full of gratitude for all those wonderful times we have shared together. And Jewel echoes those sentiments. Bill Tucker