Family Ties
I feel for people who have ongoing family drama, trauma from which they have a hard time recovering, or just general toxicity in blood relationships. When I was growing up, I thought I might be destined for some of that. My parents went through multiple marriages before finding the right fit. I bounced around a lot and didn't live with either of them past the age of 14. I had my own struggles before finding Wonder Woman. But these days, I get nothing but joy from my family. That's not to say that we all have perfect, drama-free lives. We don't. But what we have is love, respect, and genuine fondness.
I love seeing my kids happy. My son is on a weekend trip to Boston just to visit art museums, catch a Red Sox game (with killer seats), and eat at good restaurants. My oldest daughter just texted me to see if I could help a friend of hers find a structural engineer from our hometown to assist another friend. The last message exchange I had with my youngest was about the Waffle House-themed birthday party she had for my grandson because they are both quirky like that. They live in Fairbanks, Alaska, where there are no real Waffle Houses, so they created their own. I love it.
My siblings read my blog and comment on it from time to time. Two of them are going through year one of empty nest syndrome, as they have college freshmen away from home for the first time. My youngest brother is enjoying one last year with his high school senior daughter before she leaves next fall.
The hardest part of being at this stage of life is watching my parents, aunts, and uncles age. Luckily, almost all of my parents' generation is still with us, but they have the kinds of health issues that arise as you approach your 70s and 80s. My parents had me when they were young, so there has never been a big age gap between their generation and mine. They've always seemed young until, boom, one day I looked up and I'm almost 60, and some of them are using canes and walkers. I'm not estranged from a single one of them. Luckily, even in a time when the weird U.S. political situation is causing irreconcilable differences in some families, ours still puts blood above politics.
My bonus family, the one I gained when I married Wonder Woman, also provides lots of love and happiness. Today, on our way home from our aborted race weekend, we are stopping by Virginia Tech to see our grandson, who is in his freshman year there. We are making plans for a couple of weeks from now to go stay the weekend with his siblings so his parents can come visit. While we are staying with them, we will have granddaughter superstar duty, as our youngest spends her Saturdays bouncing between dance, piano, gymnastics, and Taekwondo! She's only five!
I don't have a lot of close relationships these days outside of my family. There hardly seems to be time for it. With five kids and thirteen grandchildren between us, plus living parents and a passel of siblings and cousins that we stay in contact with, Wonder Woman and I stay pretty busy. And we stay pretty loved.
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