When I think about my family, I think about my mom, my dad,
and my brother. Then I think about my aunts and uncles and their children and
their children’s children. Then, I think about my great aunts and uncles and
their children, and their children’s children, and so forth and so on.
If you are like me, you have an enormously large family, and
you can’t keep up with who’s who and who married which brother and who had so
and so’s children. Most of the time, you don’t know how you’re related to
someone, you just know that you are. So, I’m sure that anyone could understand
my slight distress as I went to a family reunion recently.
Every time, I see the same familiar faces, and over the
years, I have been able to put names to the faces. But every year, there are a
few people that I have to walk up to, shake their hand, and ask how the hell
they are related to me. It’s always something along the lines of “well, my
great, great grandmother married your grandfather’s brother…” That person is my
forth cousin, and I’m usually left extremely confused.
I guess I never really understood why everyone stayed in
touch, especially after I realized that some of the people were my fourth and
fifth cousins. I soon realized though that my mother and aunts grew up in the
same generation as my great aunt’s and uncle’s children, and there were A LOT
of them. My grandfather came from a family of 8 I believe, and everyone had a
few kids, who had a few kids, who also had a few kids. And that’s just my
grandfather’s side of the family! I’ll have to save my grandmother’s side for
another article.
Either way, listening to some of the stories blew me away.
The things that my mother and her first and second cousins (my second and third
cousins) did when they were children were crazy. They made amazing memories,
and they were not only related, but they were also all best friends who are
sticking together for life.
So yes, having a huge family is exceedingly stressful, and
my head really hurts when I finally figure out after about an hour or so how I’m
related to someone, but it is also awesome. Taking a day to talk to my cousins
about their childhood and my great aunt’s and uncle’s lives was one of the most
interesting things I could hear. Looking at pictures and seeing how things used
to be was ever better. But above all, hearing where I came from and the
struggles that my great grandparents faced coming to this country made me appreciate
my giant family.
I think that it is hard for my generation to understand the
bonds that are made within a family because things are so different now a days.
My one cousin explained to me that when he and my mom were kids, they just got
in the car to visit their family members. They didn’t call to say that they
were coming, and if one wasn’t home, they went on to the next family member’s
house. That would never happen now. We are all so busy that we have to call and
set a specific time aside to visit with family.
Then, I started to think about how amazed my
great grandparents would be if they saw how much their family has grown.
Somehow, two immigrants met, got married, and are the reason that I am here.
They are also the reason that probably more than one hundred other people are
here too. I am thankful for my large family. Although I do not know how I’m
related to half of them, they are there forever and always.
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