When my older brother's wife suddenly passed away, I contacted my niece Eva by e-mail. That's not quite as cold as it sounds. I wasn't told until well after the funeral, her father and I only tolerate each other (I've always been referred derisively by him as The Kid because he's 13 years older than me), and of his three kids (boy from #1 and girl/girl from Tina who just died) Eva is the only one who ever acted as if I was really a member of the family. Added to all of that is the fact that they are all back east and I'm in LA.
So, anyway, I contacted Eva and she wrote back. And I wrote again and so did she, a number of times over 4 months. Mostly it was old times that she might not remember when I was periodically back in Toledo at some family reunion or other and she and her sister were maybe too little to remember. From Eva it was mostly her problems with her 14 year old daughter, trying to get money from her ex, problems raising Patty, trying to get her degree, and working full time. Not an uncommon story.