April 29, 2010

Renewing Family Ties

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the funeral of a first cousin who died unexpectedly. As I've said before, my father was one of seven children and I have a lot of cousins. But my father didn't like to vacation or even go on weekend visits to see his family. I guess it was a family trait because several of them told me their parents were the same. The only time I ever got to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins were mainly at funerals. Then, we always said we need to get together more.  I did organize a family reunion after my father died and everyone seemed to enjoy it, but we never had another one. We were just starting our family, and I always said when things slowed down, I wanted to start visiting our families and get to know them. It never happened.

At this funeral, several people spoke about how well liked my cousin was, how he reached out to people, his sense of humor, and love of practical jokes. And I never knew him.

As I sat there listening, I decided that I wasn't going to let any more time pass before getting to know the rest of my family and Hubby's family. Making a trip one weekend each month will be good for us, since we seldom take vacations either, and we can begin to get reacquainted with our family. Since we visited with Hubby's family last, this month will be someone from my family. I just hope they want to spend a little time with us as much as I want to spend time with them. Wish us luck.

Until next time, may you have blessings and family ties,
Marti

1 comment:

  1. I know my husband's family better than I know mine - well what's left of mine (and that's three that I know of). They have reunions. I feel quite close to those relatives even though they are not "Blood." My dad wasn't much for getting together with his family either. I have found a lot of information about them after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Sad.

    ReplyDelete