I am sitting here in my living room with my little brother, Sam, who has been visiting us for the past week with two of his three kids, Hutch and Charlsie. The kids headed back to Texas today on the plane and Sam leaves tomorrow morning to drive back to Tempe, Arizona to join his girlfriend, Jaime, who left here on Wednesday. This is the first time that Sam has come to visit without it being a holiday or business, and the first time for Jaime, Hutch and Charlsie to visit our LA home. Needless to say, I am grateful they made the trek. Surprisingly, we don’t get a lot of visitors out here on the West Coast. People say they want to come, but time and commitments and work all seem to prevent that from happening.
Sam and I are the remaining two siblings out of six and we are also the youngest of those six. We have always had our own special connection, but now it seems that connection is even more important. After all, we don’t have the luxury of four other siblings to spread all our attention to. We do have our beloved cousin, Lee, who is like a brother to both of us, as well as our extended family who we grew up with in Texas. Not to mention our Utah family, which is composed of our sister Leslie’s kids and their families. Still, there’s something about having someone in your life who looks a lot like you and who has many of the same mannerisms and memories.
I am aware more than ever that family is not something one needs to take for granted. People die more often than you’d expect or move to far off places where it’s easy to get out of touch. So, this week has been a wonderful reminder of just how easy and natural it can be to have family around. We all share the same sense of humor and the same political beliefs. We have similar outlooks on life and arrive at the same conclusions most of the time when given the same set of facts. We certainly have our differences, but they are strikingly few in comparison to the similarities. And, on top of all that, we all seem to want to stay connected and honor these relationships that span quite a few decades at this point.
So, thank you, Sam, Jaime, Hutch and Charlsie for taking the time to come out and see your California relatives. I know I can speak for my whole family here when I say that it’s been a treat to have you close.
And to think it wasn’t a funeral that brought us together. Now, that’s a major difference. Let’s keep that trend going for quite a few years into the future, if you don’t mind.
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