Too Much Family...and Not Enough

I’m out of town for the weekend to go to my husband’s family reunion. I haven’t entirely decided how I feel about that.

Don’t get me wrong. Lee has a great family, friendly, inviting, quirky. All the things I like in people. But, there’s a LOT of them. Lee’s grandfather had ten sisters and they mostly live in close proximity so family events are well populated. I know most of them and like them. I love Lee’s grandparents unreservedly. They’re good people.

But I’m not a party person and that’s a lot of humanity. Very loud humanity. And that’s just the reunion itself. We’ll be staying with Lee’s grandparents who generously share with all of us, but that means 12 people in a house about the size of my living room. And one bathroom. That should be interesting.

But there’s another aspect that makes me quite sad. Lee’s great-grandmother (on the other side) used to live within an hour of our reunion spot and, a little less than two years ago, she died. I can’t remember going to a reunion where a visit to Grandmother Atha wasn’t part of it, even when I was brought along before I was even part of the family. She missed seeing Roxy, even hearing about Roxy’s forthcoming birth, and that makes me sad. She died feeling alone and didn’t tell us what was wrong (pancreatic cancer). We only found out after she died. She was a resilient, independent woman. I loved her very much.

She will definitely be missed.