Off to a Family Reunion

Early this morning I will be leaving for a family reunion – our first and hopefully the first of many. This year it will include my three adult children, their mother, a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law, three grandchildren, and Cody – my son’s dog. The large four bed room, three-bath beach house with a pool on St. George Island in the pan handle of Florida will provide the venue for laughter, a few old stories and a lot of fun. Thus, I will be incommunicado until the end of next weekend.

Just for the heck of it, I did a Google Search on “Family Reunions” and found hundreds of sites devoted to family reunions. Very helpful information! In fact, one of the websites, family-reunion.com, is totally devoted to what one might need to know and do to plan a family reunion. For example, it includes:

Five Resource Links:

and,

Fourteen Organizing Links:

For years I have been trying to get my family to plan a reunion… but everyone’s been too busy. This year, however, it’s finally happening. In addition to sweetening the pot (kicking in more than my share of the rental cost of the beach house), I think guilt had some role in everyone’s decision. I told them about a very close buddy of mine who for years tried to get his family to get together for a three-day reunion, but the response always was the same: “We’re so busy at work, and…” When my buddy died, however, everyone in his family spent a week in his house grieving and taking care of his effects. As I told my children, it would be nice for the grandchildren to run on the beach and swim in the pool with Pop Pop (instead of waiting too long and watching him drool in a rocking chair, eating his meals through a straw).

Reunions often start at funerals. People often attend funerals even if they may not have had contact with the deceased person in years. Family members are so pleased to see each other, but this is difficult under the circumstances. Then they talk about getting together for a happy occasion, someone agrees to organize it, and the seed of a reunion have been planted. Sometimes property brings families together. Families learn that they are heirs, and in trying to settle the legal problems, find other relatives they did not know existed. To wit, my family’s reunion is as great as I expect it to be, I am going to suggest that next year we include extended-family members (I suspect I’m still influenced by Alex Haley’s great book, Roots). I’m so excited I’m tingling!

’ll see you when I get back… pass the sunscreen!

Question: Does your family have an annual family reunion?

Bill