Family is something wonderful that we often take for granted. Everyone dis, it's natural. Family is one of those things you really miss when you don't have it anymore.
I come from a small family, and a small extended family. As a child, we'd gather with all the extended family just to get a good sized crowd gathered. For some reason, we tend to start our child rearing later in life, so all the adults in my early life were already in mid-life. By the time I graduated college, they were staying to pass on to their heavenly rewards.
As the result, I've had few relatives, and must of them have loved in other states. So, I adopted my husband's larger immediate family and his really large extended family as my own.
Tonight, one of my the first cousins can into town from Louisiana, and he is staying the night with us. It's so good to have a blood relative here, it's something i cherish. We have family ties and shared memories very few other people have in common with me. It makes me happy because I really miss all those good souls from so long ago... My grandmother, aunt, uncles, father, and all the loving folks who made me who I am.
I never forget them, I recall their stories as I travel places they once occupied. Several years ago we celebrated the hundredth anniversary of our family church - built by four families, all German immigrants, from which my grandmother and grandfather were descendants. In the first organ peels and voices raised, years stand down my face as all the monitors of my beloved family members who say in those pews and sang the same hymns came flooding into my awareness. Oh how I miss them all!
Oh how much appreciate having my cousin here tonight.
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