My three siblings and I grew up in Los Angeles next door to five cousins. But we are not your everyday cousins. We’re “special.” You see, we are “double cousins.” A bit of explanation is in order.
One of my mother’s sisters is their mother, and one of my father’s brothers is their father. To make this simpler, two sisters from the Rivas family married two brothers from the Magallanes family. We cousins all share the same four grandparents.
We cousins all played together and visited with each other daily. We shared our interests and some of our sorrows. Our parents are gone, and we are all now in our “golden years.” All nine of us today are well and thriving, to one degree or another. Having been raised by parents from the same families means that we understand each other like no one else in the whole world understands us.