My maternal grandmother's sister, her husband and her two children, together with the 13 year old brother of my mother, was involved in a severe car accident caused by a drunk driver in 1965. Only my grandmother's sister survived this accident.
I was two at the time. I can remember all three children vividly. Though too young to be able to grasp the pain and trauma to everybody involved, this accident and the senseless loss of lives reverberated not only in my direct family for many years to come, but also in those families of my cousins (twice, thrice) removed.
I inherited one of the toys of one of the children: a big Pinocchio:
Unbeknownst by me, there was another identical Pinnochio, given to one of the Palm's nieces.
After joining WikiTree a short while ago we got the message that a new WikiTreer saw this picture on this profile and "... nearly fell off" her chair - her older sister had been given the same Pinnochio ...
So we started corresponding, exchanging memories about our visits to Auntie "Kola's" house - remembering the imprints of the children's hands and their names written in the cement, the ice cream that was given in the kitchen .... warm loving memories.
The cousins are now spread all over the world, and I was relieved to at last find a good home for him (I considered selling him on Ebay but because of the provenance was reluctant to let him go to strangers) - from South Africa to the Netherlands and now on it's way all bubble-wrapped to Melbourne Australia ...
WikiTree .... is awesome ... !