We all have that one eccentric relative who always says and does the strangest things. In your family, who’s that person, and what is it that earned him/her that reputation?

Instead of talking about an eccentric relative of mine, I’ve decided to switch it the other way around and talk about my cousin who I admire the most. 🙂 As I mentioned in my salad days post yesterday, I had the chance to spend a lot of time with my cousins and one of them was my eldest cousin, Clareelyn. She always visited my grandparents and actually lived with them as well when she was young until she moved to the big city to attend high school and college. She graduated as a chemist and I’ll never forget the time when she took me with her to the university while she was taking summer classes and I got to see the fun things they did in the lab. It’s pretty cool to see her and her classmates do some experiments and I remember them breaking some test tubes after they were done. I think I actually did break one too! 😀

I’ve always felt close with my cousin since I was a kid as she is like the big sister that I never had. We even used to do the nose-to-nose! 😀 That’s how close we were to each other! Well, we’re still very close but we don’t get to spend a lot of time together nowadays as we live in different countries. She is now married with two beautiful daughters and she has a successful business related to her degree.

What I admire most about my cousin is her kindness. She is giving and always ready to help. This became more apparent when our grandmother fell very ill. She went to see my grandmother in the hospital everyday even though she had work and had a very long commute. She also helped with the financial needs of my grandmother. But what meant the most for me was the time and effort she gave to our grandmother. That is something more precious than anything else in this world. I admire her for the kind and compassionate person that she is and I am grateful for having a cousin like her. ❤

*DP