Mary was right

Those who read the blog last year know that Candee and her mom found blood relatives in County Cork - Mary O'Callaghan, her sons, Niall and Donal, Donal's wife Jenny and his two sons, Donal and Jack. It was a wonderful occasion. For Candee's mom, they are the first blood relatives she had met in her entire life, other than her own mother and father. When Mary told mom she looked just like her cousin Mae (Mary), mom said she never looked like anyone before in her life. How terrific, huh? Yesterday, we went back to west Cork and visited Mary again. We had a lovely visit; Mary, once again, overwhelmed us with her hospitality, putting out a wonderful lunch of produce from her garden and many homebaked goodies, including a very yummy cake. We were amazed how much little Donal and Jack had grown in a year. We also met, for the first time, Mary's daughter Catherine. A very beautiful and interesting young woman. Catherine works as a nurse and was at work when we visited last year. She and her husband live just a few doors away with their two children whom we look forward to meeting another time. It was great to spend some time getting to know her. Later on, Candee, Mary, and I went out to dinner and had a grand time. Mary chided us a bit about not having visited some of the beautiful areas in West County Cork - "There's more to Ireland than County Mayo, you know." So, today, we drove out to the beautiful and quaint villages of Clonakilty and Skibbereen, and visited the charming seaside towns of Glanmore and Harbourtownshend. Mary was right! We plan to further explore this area in a future visit and see these magnificent coastal vistas.