family is everything

they make us who we are...or who we are not...nature versus nurture...can you be like your relatives if you were not raised with them? who knows, but i get to find out this summer when i meet long lost family members at a reunion in virginia! i am so excited to see people i have not seen in a while, but even more geeked to meet people i never knew existed, much less were related to me!

my only sadness about the whole event is that there are not going to be family members there that would have loved to be...the ones that have passed on...mom, especially mom, she thought funerals were social events, she lived such a sheltered life and lived far away from her loved ones...she only got to see some of them on a hurried trip to bail out one of my dad's brothers from jail or to see his dying mother in the hospital, only to find when we got to west virginia, mammaw was standing in the kitchen cooking!

ned, who died way too young, at age 27, from kidney disease...he would have been a hoot! and everyone would have loved him!

rick, who also died way too young, at age 52, from brain cancer...he is still the family hero with his kindness and unselfishness passed down to his children, sara beth, who is organizing the reunion, philip and chris.

and granny roten, mamie dell austin roten...i cried at her viewing because i was staring at her hands and thinking about all the crafts and clothes and other items i would sit and watch her make in her resale shop down on the main drag...baby brother john and i got the joy of spending the summer with her in 1976...she never made us feel like we were intruding or being in her way...she loved us because we were her daughter's children.

there are numerous and sundry others who will be missing, and missed, in june, as at all times, and i can't wait to learn about them!

love while you have them with you, because you will miss them when they are gone...FAMILY!