My Family

This past weekend I went back to the home town area to celebrate the wedding of a cousin. One of the things I have always enjoyed about my family is the inclusion over so many years and the accidental similarities which have occurred over the years. This is mainly my father’s family, his siblings and their children but my mother’s family has always been included. When a lot of the gatherings began my paternal grandmother and great grandmother were both still living. For those not familiar my father had three siblings; a brother and two sisters. Those four children had 12 children, oddly 6 boys and 6 girls. I’m one of the 6 boys and myself and my other 11 family members have added 20 something children to the family. Now, those children are marrying and having children. This wedding isn’t the first of those to occur and surely won’t be the last. As our family has grown we have grown apart by physical distance and also sadly the number of occasion in which we gather has also started to dwindle. Things change, but I don’t really want to see this change. I remember very large family gatherings from when I was a child. One where our great grandmother who would have been in her 70’s straddling a Harley with a cigarette in her mouth and a beer in her hand. I know the cigarette was hers but the beer may have been a prop for the photo. My father, uncle and aunts continued this tradition for years over the all the teen angst of their children. People have come and gone in the group as one person marries, and another divorced, special friends who have become just like family, exchange students from all over the globe have become part of our family, and those included in the group continue to grow. We all haven’t always gotten along and there have been times when there have been sore feelings a time or two. What family doesn’t have those ups and downs? We have always come back together and been a family, laughed and cried together and celebrated all the accomplishment and step toward the next generation of this family. I extend this out to my 11 fellow family members, to remember all the good that came from our parents bringing us together all those times and how it has brought our children together to celebrate and to know they are loved. We have traveled from ocean to ocean together and a lot of the spaces in between. While we may not be able to have the Thanksgiving dinners that grew so large that no one person’s house could hold it any longer every year or the Christmas white elephant exchanges for other reasons. We grew up and knew each other and our children have come to know one another because of effort our father’s and mother’s put into making this happen. Let’s continue this tradition our parents started so our grandchildren and great grandchildren will know and love each other and hear us tell the stories about our mother’s and father’s and our grandparents and great grandparents and to make friend with cousins they would otherwise not even know. I really believe our lives were better for our parents bringing us all together and that our children’s lives are so much richer because they know their history and can see that from very humble beginnings in the hills of West Virginia, that we have roots all across this nation now. We have all laughed together, cried together, hugged and loved one another for so, so, many years. We are the ones now, that must carry this forward for the next generation and the next after that one. I am glad our parents started this tradition of gathering to celebrate our lives and I hope we will continue to celebrate our lives, our accomplishments great and small, and the events of our lives happy and sad for many generations to come. Without family you have nothing and we have a great family Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, http://invisibledon.diaryland.com/images/burningname.gif PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards