It's a small world, after all

Kjetil Njoten and his wife Zoe, along with their son, live in La Crescenta, about 15 miles outside Los Angeles, California. Everyone is friendly, but they never got to know their neighbors very well until the pandemic forced everyone to stay home. During a "social distancing" happy hour, they chatted with Erik and Jen Strom, who live four houses away.

The two men discovered they both came from the same Norwegian island, and they have the same great-great-grandfather. This means their children, Monty Njoten,10 and Emma Strom, 4, will grow up as cousins living just 100 yards apart. Jen wonders, "how long it would have taken for us to make this connection if we didn't have a reason to slow down from our regular life?"