My maternal grandmother, Mariam, died when my mother was a child. She was from Lebanon and moved to the U.S. before my mother was born. Although we knew quite a bit about my grandfather’s side of the family, we knew almost nothing about hers. We found one small photo of her and for some reason, I felt instantly connected to her, always wishing I knew some of her history, her family.

Fast forward to Maui, 2008. I was painting a commission for a wealthy couple here on the island. The wife happened to be from Lebanon and wanted to know about my Lebanese family, the village they came from etc. I told her the name of the village, though I didn’t know where it was located or even if I had the name right. She had heard of the village, a very small mountain town, because her best friend was originally from there. I told her my grandparents’ family names. It turned out that her best friend had the same surname as my grandmother. She said there was no doubt we were related.I was so excited when she said she would mention it to her friend when they spoke again (the friend lives in Paris).

One day, out of the blue, I get a call from the mainland, from an unfamiliar number but an area code in my home state. The voice on the other end is foreign. The woman tells me she is the cousin of my client’s best friend in Paris. She heard the story of my grandmother and our desire to know more about her. I asked her where she was as I noticed the area code was from my home state. It turns out that she lives in my hometown and coincidentally, my siblings and I would soon be visiting home. Upon our arrival we went to meet this woman whose mother happened to be visiting from Lebanon. Once we starting talking, we discovered that her visiting mother was named after my grandmother’s sister!

They filled us in on so many details of our Lebanese family that we had never known. We laughed and cried and felt a sense of completion that is hard to put into words. To top it off, we discovered that her mother’s grandfather and my grandmother were brother and sister! Here we were reunited with our family through a seemingly random meeting and conversation with a client on Maui.

Now we are planning a trip with our new found relatives to meet the rest of the family in our home village in Lebanon. What a blessing!

Beth–Maui, Hawaii

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