Family Affair

If you have been paying attention my dear readers, you know that I have been having such a great time discovering my family. As adults with busy lives, discovering your estranged siblings and other family members definitely takes commitment, as all parties must be willing to do the work. I gushed about my sister Tracie previously but I’m happy to say the effort has been mutual with my brother Todd as well.

I took mom away with me for Labor Day weekend to visit my brother and my niece in North Carolina. My heart was so full; even returning and discovering that mom and I had both contracted COVID didn’t take away from my joy!

My brother and his wife are just good people! My sister-in-law took on the responsibility of making reservations for us for dinner and brunch respectively while we were there and we had a blast. We are all movie-lovers so we even grabbed a movie after dinner our first night to see the Equalizer 3 (good movie by the way). It was so nice to sit in a space enjoying things I usually do alone or with mom, with people I have grown to love. I love being embraced by them but the icing on the cake was how inclusive they were of my mom; it just warmed my heart.

We wrapped our time with them over dinner on the Sunday night before Labor Day. Karla and I putzed around in the kitchen while Todd and mom watched Avatar: The Way of Water. Mom and I rested at our VRBO on Labor Day ahead of our drive back home that Tuesday, and even stopped in to see my beautiful niece Mara on the way home. My niece is a smart, intelligent young lady with her head on straight (great job mom and dad)! The visit was short but once our ride home resumed, mom and I chatted about how good a time we had during the short weekend engaging with these wonderful personalities.

My brother describes our chats as him lying on my “couch”, but my response to that is that his insight is just as valuable to me as mine is to him. Life can be challenging, there is no doubt about that, but how wonderfully reassuring it is to know that you don’t have to navigate all of the challenges alone.

It is definitely a family affair.