A $2 reminder that family is family.

A couple years ago on my birthday I stopped by the Post Office to buy some stamps. I paid cash and in the change I received was a $2 bill.  It's rare to come across this denomination of money and I found it no coincidence that of all times to have one pop up was on my birthday.  In 1976, the Federal Reserve re-introduced the $2 bill after 10 years of not printing those bills for circulation. I remember getting birthday cards from my Great Aunt Olive and Great Great Aunt Mary and in the card there was always a $2 bill.
These ladies lived in Pennsylvania and even though I may have met them in Maine when I was young, I really don't remember meeting them until my 13th birthday when we took a roadtrip out to visit them for a few days.  Aunt Mary was born in England and came to the US in 1910 with her husband Edward, settling in Philadelphia. Aunt Olive was born in 1913 and appears to have lived all of her life in Pennsylvania.  (I am currently working on that portion of the family tree, which is why the information is flowing so easily from my fingertips). Aunt Olive married my grandfather's brother John (everyone called him Jim). Uncle Jim joined the Navy in 1927 and was stationed in Philadelphia and this is where they met. They were married in 1933 after Uncle Jim discharged from the Navy. They never had any children and he died a few days before my 6th birthday.
I remember being a little overwhelmed on my 13th birthday, but it was a time when I started to get a small understanding that family was family regardless of how little or how much time you got to spend with each other.  Aunt Olive baked me a special cake, with coins wrapped in parchment paper baked into it.  The fun was eating your piece of cake and finding out how much money was buried in it. I had never heard of a cake like that before and felt special because she had made it especially for me.  She also wrapped an old jewelry box my Aunt Mary had as a present and in this jewelry box was a pearl necklace.  She gave each one of us "girl cousins" when we turned 13. Such lavish gifts from someone I barely knew..but family is family. That visit was the last I would have with Aunt Olive and Aunt Mary as they died a few years later.
An interesting fact I learned about my Aunts is that in 1951 they traveled aboard the Queen Mary to Southhampton England for a 2 month stay before returning home. 2 suitcases a piece..those ladies certainly knew how to pack lightly.
I know that $2 bill I got on my birthday from the post office was their way of saying hello, letting me know that even though they have been gone for many years..family is still family and they are still around.