My Family

This is my family. This is how we grieve. This is how we celebrate. This is how we love to be together. After an emotionally exhausting Saturday morning we all met for a luncheon at my parents house. Friends, family, and neighbors all gathered together. The weather was perfect and soon we moved the party outside.
Yes, that is an old "white trash" couch on my parents front lawn, there were a lot of us so we needed every chair we could find. We talked, laughed and ate way too much.
We watched an impromptu softball game, and laughed our heads off as adult and child alike hit the ball then ran like crazy to step on the oven hot pads serving as bases. I watched the game for over an hour and still don't know if there were actual teams or not.
We even managed to fix my parents broken sidewalk, break out a few tools and every man and boy came running. I guess they need three or four to do the acutal work and another seven or eight to watch.

It seemed that no one wanted to leave, we sat outside for hours and as the evening came, we moved out to the hill for hot dogs and smores over the bon fire. It was a good day. How grateful I am for a family who can hold each other up in the bad times and hold together in the good. How a day that begins so full of sorrow can end so full of joy. This is my family, and all are welcome.