Photo from Aaron Smith’s Instagram account.
NATALIE KINNEY | STAFF REPORTER | nkinney@butler.edu
Butler University provided the opportunity for long-lost cousins to meet for the first time. The cousins recall how they came to meet each other and how they’ve been inseparable ever since.
From: Indianapolis (20 minutes apart)
Aaliyah: First-Year
Aaron: Senior
The Butler Collegian: How do you two know each other?
Aaliyah Coe: My great-grandma, Margaret, is his grandma.
Aaron Smith: I think she’s my great-aunt because she’s my dad’s aunt.
AC: My mom’s grandma. That would make her my great-grandma because Margaret has a daughter. Do you know her daughter? You probably do.
AS:[Our family is] too big. We just met a month ago. My dad said, “Your cousin’s supposed to go to Butler.” And I asked if we’d met. I didn’t think so. The meeting was funny. I was going to come meet her on campus in the morning and I didn’t get to see her before class and all my friends said they got to meet my cousin.
AC: I was so upset. I walked into the Diversity Center and they were really welcoming and I said I was supposed to meet my cousin down here. And everyone said, “I love Aaron; Aaron is so cool.” I’m just like, “OK, everyone here likes my cousin and I don’t even know who he is yet.”
TBC: Where are you both from?
AS: Indianapolis.
AC: Here. Just a drive away [from each other].
TBC: Did you ever know of each other?
AS: It was literally my dad telling me [about Aaliyah].
They look at each other and laugh.
AC: Did you go to that family barbeque?
They both laugh
AS: I didn’t go.
AC: I didn’t either; I was wondering if you were going to be there!
TBC: When did you find out you two were cousins?
AC: The first week. Ever since then, my mom told me she thought I had a cousin going to Butler. The first week of school she asked if I met my cousin and I didn’t know. Is my cousin a boy? Is my cousin a girl? What’s my cousin’s name? And then I’m like, “I’m not going to find Aaron Smith on this campus.” And then she gave me his number and I texted [him], “Are you Margaret’s grandson?” He didn’t respond. So, then I texted, “Oh, by the way I’m your cousin.”
AS: Legit had no pictures, no names-
AC: Nothing!
TBC: Can you describe what it was like meeting for the first time?
AC: It was cool; we clicked automatically over the little things like Chick-Fil-A Polynesian sauce.
AS: We walked in and saw each other and-
They looked at each other at this point and both laugh.
AS/AC: “Yeaaaaah.”
TBC: What’s the best part of discovering you’re long lost cousins?
AS: You have somebody you haven’t known, but you know you have this bond [for the rest of your life].
