Family Reach

I just returned from a whirlwind weekend to southern Minnesota for a wedding reception.  The bride was my flower girl 18 years ago and her mom is one of my cousins.  The reception was in the town where she now calls home with  her new husband on his family's farm.  Both sides of my family is packed with cousins and I have fond memories of trips back to Illinois for holidays and vacation.

This was a fun time.  We got to visit, share how much kids have grown, and even dance until our feet couldn't dance anymore.  And then some more.  Seeing kids dance, especially my four year old nephew, brought back memories of previous family events when I was one of the kids.  Usually there was a kids place to eat, games that we would play, and cameras snapping moments in time. 

Both of my grandfathers passed away when I was young, so most of my grandparent memories involve my grandmothers. They both treated family as something important.  They both explained away most of my behavior as "just a stage".  They could cook up a storm and feed a multitude that would make even Jesus jealous. 

Even though we moved away from Illinois when I was seven, we still found a way to journey back there at least every summer.  We would gather for picnics and I remember trying to find a breeze to fly a kite, and then try to find the kite after the wind took it away.  We rode horses on the farm where my dad grew up.  I remember having ham, green beans and real mashed potatoes at one grandma's house and having potato soup, oyster stew, and fresh sweet corn with the other side of the family.

One of my favorite things that our extended family did when I was in college was to decide that both sides of my family (most live within an hour of each other and we finally lived close enough to come back for short trips) would all meet at the church where my parents got married and share Thanksgiving.   It was a double family reunion.  Those few years are something I will always cherish.  The last Thanksgiving we had up there was when my maternal grandmother was in hospice.  We had to postpone Thanksgiving and she died the next day.  I remember going to a small gathering with my dad's family that night.  My paternal grandmother took my mom aside and cared for her grieving daughter-in-law.  Little did we know we would lose that grandmother six months later.  I am so grateful to have grown up in a family full of love from both sides and know that has sustained us even when the pain was great.

I am hoping next summer to travel back to Illinois with my monkeys and show them the places that are full of memories.  They will meet my aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. I'm hopeful they will get to play with a new generation of cousins that will soon become friends.  And I know that when times are hard, my family reach is farther than those in just my household.