Family

There are a lot of quirky things about families.

‘Family’ is a term used to describe a group of people that are either related or not by blood, through marriage, not related at all but closer than a ‘relative’ etc.

What I am trying to say is that family can be anyone who means something to you, or some form of relationship that has formed a bond between two or more people.

Confused yet?

Anyway, if you read these columns you know that I am blessed to have such a great family. (Notice that I said blessed, not overly excited or want to be around them as much as I am).

I have written about most recently my Stepdaddy, mystep family on my Dad’s side, my mother, my Papa, and my sister.

Well recently I’ve had a lot of family time.

My family took a vacation to Myrtle Beach, for seven days. In case you didn’t know I work with two members of my family daily…so most weeks I get enough of them.

But on vacation my Mom, Emily (my sister) and I traveled to the beach to spend four and a half days together…it turned out that may have been a bit much as by Tuesday, we were a little stressed around one another. (We also spent time with other family members, my Aunt Debby and her whole family and lots of friends.)

However, Stepdaddy joined us on Wednesday accompanied by his two grandsons which guaranteed us in better spirits for the rest of the week.

When we returned home, G-Mom (Stepdaddy’s mom) was in town visiting from her home in Ocean City, MD. G-Mom is 84 and just as spry as ever. With her visit I got to see a lot of relatives that I haven’t seen lately.

I saw my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dewey, and their beautiful house more than I had seen them in years, and they just live in Turtle Cove.

We watched Jeopardy and the Braves and had some homemade Italian dinners, to round out these couple of weeks.

I learned a lot from and about them in our visits, and want to say ‘thank you’ both for reading the paper, my column and for being so good to me.

I got to see their kids, who both have kids…one new baby, Will, who is not yet 1, and a little charmer. Great job Dewey and Kelly. I got to see Allison and James and Alyssa..she’s getting so grown up.

I was able to see my nieces and nephews and my stepsister and her husband…the kids were wonderful.

And then there is G-Mom. I got to hear her talk, and listen to her tell everyone that she had to go home sooner rather than later because she has a life up in Maryland, too.

She told of liquor store (Mudd’s Liquors which she ran for several years), her siblings (there were 10 kids in her home)…Dr. Mudd, her travels and being a Eucharist minister.

Wow! What an amazing lady…but I already knew that. That woman, and my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dewey are just that…my family. They never once made me feel like a ‘step.’ From day one I was just family.

In closing I would like to say thanks to them for everything….I can’t wait to see all of you (and the others) again.

Maybe even more often?!