Photo-A-Day #1234

Today Allison and I went to her family reunion. It was a pretty big one because her grandfather (red shirt) Bob is the youngest of 13. There are 4 siblings remaining (pictured). The day was a very nice one where we got to meet many of the family members from all over and they all got to meet Eva. Eva was a total trooper all day long. She didn’t cry (except for a minute after a small fall) she wasn’t strange with anyone new. She was totally relaxed and loved all the attention.

There was a ton of food and a nice tribute to all of the siblings in the family from the remaining four. Each of the four siblings spoke about those who were gone and those who were in the room. With such a large family there were big stretches between the oldest and the youngest but everyone had memories of everyone else. The oldest at the table is 95 and the youngest 75. With that much living history in one room it was fascinating to hear about each of the siblings and their lives. Each of the 13 siblings were called out and the families who were there representing them stood and introduced themselves. Everyone had name tags and mine read grandson-in-law. Some of theme were funny like Allison’s cousin’s husband Bart. His stated, Not A Blood Relation. He kills me.

I didn’t even know he was there until I went to the men’s room. There are two urinals and there was already someone in one of them so I stepped up tot he other, no eye contact looking straight at the wall (Like you are supposed to). Then I hear a “Hey You!” but it sounded in my head as something threatening and not a welcome greeting form someone happy to see me. I glanced sideways at the person caught a glimpse of a thick goatee and shaved head and was like, I’m in trouble here. All the while I had forgotten that Bart and Erin were going to be at the reunion. Then he said something else and I finally realized who was beside me. What a relief.

I was pretty happy to see Bart. Bart and Erin used to live near us and then moved up to NH, way up. And now we never see them, pretty much our only contact has been their highly entertaining Christmas letter complete with little stick figure recreations of events from the year. I hope that we get to see more of them or at least communicate more via e-mail because I miss those two.

After the reunion we went over and visited Allison’s other grandparents John and Eva along with her parents Marcia and Dan and Allison’s brother Nate. We stayed there for a few hours, had dinner and Eva entertained all of us with her facial expressions and attempts to stand by pulling herself up by any means possible. It was a good day.