Keeping Family Friendships Warm

From 4,825 miles away, my phone began to ring.

I had been expecting it, because it isn't every day that your parents have an anniversary as significant as this one. They had become married in 1968, and most of the principal characters of the piece had gathered to celebrate. I, because of FaceTime, was privileged to join them.

The wedding itself had taken place during the crazy 60's hippy madness and war protestations, but nobody thought about that. There was too much else to think about with the bride having FIVE children and the groom having SIX. Who cared about hippy protesters when you were on the cusp of raising and feeding 11 kids!? But they looked so calm. One child was already married, but three were in college, three in high school, and the four little girls were in grade school. Both families had sold homes and moved lock, stock, and barrel into half a dormitory right next door to the Grand Coulee Dam. 

One day I asked Mother what she had thought about before the wedding, and whether she had worried about all that extra cooking. She said she didn't even think about it until after the wedding. Imagine!

That year, we all went to the film "Yours, Mine, and Ours" starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. What great timing! The movie was hilarious and strangely familiar, as Lucille and Henry met at the commissary with multiple grocery carts. But Lucille and Henry got to go back to normal life after the movie. Our mom and dad went home to their new normal every day, day after day and year after year.

So we were raised, fed, clothed, educated, and taken to church whenever the doors were open. We didn't know each other very well, but time gave us what we needed to become friends, and then siblings. Before every Christmas, the kids at home couldn't wait for the 'big kids' to get there, because when the 'big kids' arrived, fun came with them.


Well, yesterday all the 'big kids' arrived, and fun came with them. Memories were sung, and poetry was written and shared. It felt like one of those Christmases when everybody got their favorite gift. Being together again.

So thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. We love you. You did 'good'! It was fun. It was hard! But you were faithful through it all, while we were watching. And now here you are side by side, 50 years later. 

God is good.



See you along the Way!
the SconeLady