In 1982, Notre Dame played Michigan State in East Lansing. A horde of my friends and I traveled north to cheer on the Irish. At halftime, cousin Pat McLaughlin met me in the stadium for a few minutes. We hugged, not having seen each other since their visit to Seattle in 1976. We made arrangements for my friends and I to stay in his apartment that night. After the game, we spent a fun evening together chatting and...other things, I'm sure (college students on a road trip, right?!). We both declared we wanted our branches of the family to be more connected than our fathers had been.