New Cousins

My uncle, mom's brother, took the Bay Area relatives out to dinner tonight.  I arrived at dinner and discovered that I have two new cousins I didn't know about.  Earlier at home when they had congregated before heading to the restaurant, I had still been resting from hanging out at a park earlier today and wondered why I was hearing too many (more than zero) small children's voices downstairs.  I only expected to hear one baby, my new nephew, crying if any.  By the way, the last time I hung out at a park, I was bedridden for two days afterwards.  This time, only a couple hours and a little closer to resting than bedridden.  We'll see about tomorrow.

The calculations going in my head.  My mom is almost 63 and is the fourth child.  My uncle is the second child so he's at least 65.  After some "research", he's a little older.  His third set of children are around 6 and 4.  His second set of children are our generation, 20s and 30s.  His first daughter, my oldest cousin, is mid- to late-40s, old enough to be her half-siblings' grandmother, more than 40 years difference in age.  Her daughter is old enough to be her aunt and uncle's mother.  My sister is wondering if his new wife is older or younger than we are.

I wonder how one decides to have children at such an age when you know that by the time your children get to college, you'll be in your 80s, and they will need to be prepared to lose a parent by their 20s or 30s if lucky.

In the tai chi class I'm taking at the community college, while chatting with one of the women, she mentioned that she wanted to retire next year.  She doesn't look that much older than me but I think she looks younger than her age.  I commented on the early retirement and she said that she has an old husband and wants him to retire.  At first, I didn't realize the older man in our class is her husband.  I asked if she has kids and she said, no, she has two grown step-sons.  However, she wasn't sure of their ages but thought I was probably around their age.  This month, I started taking a second tai chi class with the same teacher at a local park which is a more social setting.  There are several somewhat older couples who take these tai chi classes together.  It's a pleasure to see married couples who enjoy each others' company so much and do shared activities, not something I ever saw or heard about in my parents' social circle generation.  Chinese parents tend to "stay together for the children" but I have to say these couples who have divorced and remarried look much happier.