Family

If there's one thing I've learned from or gained from the internet it's that we belong to a number of different families at the same time. I've known this all along at one level or another, but lately I have become acutely aware of the extent of our familial connections.

Our families evolve during our lifetimes. We see that with our own flesh and blood. Some years ago, my mother alluded to the fact that our families evolve by opining that she felt as if she at that time occupied the roles that her parents occupied just a few years past. Certainly she had her years of being a mother with young children then all of a sudden, she was holding grandchildren. The cycle continues. Now it's our turn. We're watching our own children grow and reproduce, hoping against hope that they would quit growing up already because we know that we are stepping into roles our parents had when they were our age.

We have other families, too, aside from those who are immediately around us and the several extensions of nieces, nephews, second cousins and step-children. We have a young woman working with us at Lowe's... well, really, more than one young woman, who see their fellow employees as surrogate families who have shepherded them through the various pitfalls they have encountered. For the record, we celebrate their achievements as well. Just like family. I have noticed to some degree or another that in many of the places where I have worked there have been familial ties.

One family I have been discovering more and more lately has been the family of people with whom I had attended High School. I had really not given many of those people much thought for quite some time (for which i humbly apologize), electing to cocoon myself in my own little corner pretending not to notice. Via Facebook I have rediscovered many of those people with whom I spent some of the best days of my life... and I'm starting to appreciate just how much I really miss some of those people.

How much came into focus last weekend. There have been members of our High School class who had passed on throughout the years, but it took the death of Dr. Holly Barrows to pull into sharp focus how much I appreciate some of the people I grew up with. Quite honestly, I was shocked. She was practically the girl next door. She was accepted and loved by quite a number of us for who she was and will be mourned by many just for that reason. My regret is that I have not had the chance to know her and appreciate her better.

I hope that I don't have too many more regrets. This past summer I have been making up for lost time, reconnecting with an extended family from which I have been estranged for too many years. I appreciate couples who have been loyal to each other like Jim and Debbie or Howard and Vickie. There's Kay, who has apparently had a bad relationship, but has, like me, bounced back and landed on two feet. There's the 'Harley' contingent... Don I can understand, but Jane??? (You go, girl!). For once I find myself looking forward to the next big class reunion, an event I have shut myself out of for mfffty mmfffft years. Hope I can make it.

(Photograph of young Miss Virginia and her step-grandfather courtesy of the Lovely Miss Carol)

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