I'm connected via Facebook to a cousin from family I haven't seen in over 30 years. I heard via my sister that her dad died so I sent her a private message of the formulaic sympathy kind: I was so sorry to hear about your dad. My deepest sympathy to you and your mum.
And she sent me back a message saying thank you, hope you are doing okay. So that went well, I think.
Formal-ish messages are a good start because that let's them decide how much they want to respond, you're not requesting a level of family intimacy they're not ready for. Or maybe you're not ready for!
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I'm connected via Facebook to a cousin from family I haven't seen in over 30 years. I heard via my sister that her dad died so I sent her a private message of the formulaic sympathy kind: I was so sorry to hear about your dad. My deepest sympathy to you and your mum.
And she sent me back a message saying thank you, hope you are doing okay. So that went well, I think.
Formal-ish messages are a good start because that let's them decide how much they want to respond, you're not requesting a level of family intimacy they're not ready for. Or maybe you're not ready for!