Four Awards, Five Cousins

It was a good weekend in Whitefish for the Courier and an even better one for visiting dearly-missed relatives on both sides of the state for me.

In the former category, Sean R. Heavey hefted three awards at the 2016 Montana Newspaper Association convention for Best News Photo (first place), Best Feature Photo (first) and Best Lifestyles Photo (third), while I carried away first place for Best Editorial. There were publications with more awards to collect (get over yourselves, Flathead Beacon), but our little broadsheet was warmly received and well-represented, with both Heavey and myself in attendance.

As for the cousins, mine all hail from the Pacific Northwest, but one of the coolest on my mother’s side moved out to Western Montana years ago, after college and a stint in the Peace Corps, to try her hand at teaching in a small schoolhouse in a rural community. She never left. Since then, our visits have been infrequent at best, but the trip to the MNA convention allowed me the opportunity to pop in on Chantel and her delightful family near Condon. Her two excellent offspring, Ava (9) and Kaden (11) are both walking object lessons in good manners, intelligence and charm. And no, I’m not biased (it’s just true).

Chantel’s husband Justin grew up in the Flathead and brought home to me the similarities between the residents of Eastern Montana that I’ve come to know and love and those fine folks from the western side of the state who suffer from such a bad reputation here in Glasgow. It’s easy to forget about people living in Seeley Lake and Condon when we’re complaining about Missoula, but take it from a transplant, the troubles caused by uninformed meddlers from outside the valley described by Justin and Chantel sound decidedly similar to local gripes around here about the American Prairie Reserve.

Back at the convention awards banquet, I’d barely finished clapping for Sean and myself when word came down the line that another cherished and far-flung cousin on my father’s side was bound at that same moment for Glasgow.

Matt and his family (Sharon and two-year-old Tetra Jean) currently spend most of their time in Orange Walk Town, Belize, so I knew I couldn’t miss a chance to play host.

While the journos assembled in Whitefish settled down to partake in the complimentary hooch (courtesy of the Beacon), I raced eastward, hoping to cross the Continental Divide before the last rays of sunshine disappeared.

By morning, I was unpacking on the north side of town and showing Matt & Co. the piles of debris at our property on Boxcar Road near Park Grove. The youngest member of the family took it all in blithely enough while I struggled to pin down the precise extent of our relation. You family tree farmers out there will know that if little TJ is the child of my first cousin, then she’s technically my first cousin once removed. Not caring for the “removed” part of the descriptor, I've decided to dub her First Among Firsts instead. But don’t take it hard, Ava and Kaden. After all, two is more than one.