Family Reunion

This past weekend I attended the world’s hottest family reunion.  One of my sisters has been planning this reunion for six months.  I must admit that I was very impressed with her organizational skills and attention to detail.  The reunion was held in a local park and through no fault of hers it happened to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far.  The temperature was in the 90’s and the humidity level was high.  This particular reunion was for my mother’s side of the family which can be traced back to Cork, Ireland.  I now understand why I sometimes see leprechauns in my backyard around sunset.  Of course, this may also be due to flashbacks from the late 60’s.  My mother is one of nine children.  Five of them are still living and Mom is the oldest at 86 years old.  Her 70 year old baby brother is the youngest.  Since he is only five years older than me we kind of grew up together.  I am the oldest child in my family and one of the oldest cousins.  When my mother leaves this world I will be the oldest person in my family.  Aside from the heat the reunion was an enjoyable experience.  Being Irish Catholics, at a time when most women didn’t work outside the home and there weren’t the distractions of the internet or smartphones, my mother’s side of the family was very prolific.  I have more cousins than I can name or recognize.  Some of the older people at the reunion thought I was a dead ringer for my father.  I couldn’t agree more since I see his face every morning when I look in the mirror.  Of course my father didn’t have a beard and ponytail.  My granddaughter was with me so I carefully explained to her that all the people at the reunion were her family too.  Family is very important to Chloe.  She is the only child of a single Dad and is also my only grandchild.  A sense of belonging is very important to her.  It is a good thing to be part of a large family even though we all know that family can sometimes make you crazy.  This whole event happened because two people met one another in the early part of the 20^th century and fell in love.  The rest, as they say, is history.