A New 40 yr old Cousin I've Known for 20 yrs

Well on Christmas eve 2009 I had my middle child (Miranda) with me and my ex had our youngest (Liam) with her. We had just arrived at my long time friend (Liana's ) home and my ex (Wendy) called me. She said that they had gotten home early and Liam wanted to join me, could I pick him up. I said sure and then she said that she had something else to tell me and that she should probably tell me face to face but couldn't wait. She asked if I was seated and told me that Pam, her step sister (her mother is living in common law marriage with Ray N. and they have been together since before Wendy and I even started to date) has been looking for her birth mother now for 2-3 years (she and her brother were adopted as Ray and his first wife couldn't have kids). Anyway, Wendy said that on that very day when Pam arrived home to grab everything that she and the family needed to head out to her mother-in-laws for Christmas eve (Ray, Carol, Wendy, the kids all go each year), she found a letter from the Canadian Govt. She took it with her and they headed out to the family get together. On the way she opened the letter and the last name of her birth mother was familiar, so when she arrived at the party, she immediately found Wendy and asked her to look at the name. Wendy looked at it and at the address of the birth mother when she gave up her daughter. She did a double take she tells me and then told Pam that she knew this woman. She had met her. Pam’s birth mother it turns out was Orleen Adell Goodwin, my aunt, my father’s sister. My ex wife’s step sister it turns out was my first cousin. I had known my first cousin for nearly 20 years and we didn't know we were related. What’s more my father worked with Ray (her adoptive father) and before that Ray’s brother at Chrysler’s and had been that close to his niece for about 25 or more years. Ray and Carol have been friends with my father and his wife Ivy even after our divorce. How crazy is all this? What a small world, as they say. Well I got to tell my aunt Orleen on Christmas day that I knew her daughter, and gave her the details as here in written. I passed on her telephone numbers and Pam and aunt Orleen talked on Dec 27, 2009 for 2 hours. The best Christmas gift ever.