My family and other animals
I mentioned in a previous blog that it was my dad's birthday, and yesterday we marked the 2 year anniversary of his passing. 2 years ago, after the trauma of saying goodbye, we went en masse as a family for a walk, followed by a Sunday lunch of bangers and mash, the perfect meal in my dad's eyes!
Yesterday we repeated what is becoming a family tradition - Growler's Day (Growler being the name given to my dad by the children). I come from a large family, and our gathering included 12 adults, 10 children and 9 dogs! The sun broke through as we stood around a woodland pond in Chipperfield, in Hertfordshire, trying to avoid the dogs as they leapt out of the water and shook themselves dry.
I'm immensely proud of being part of such a large family, who regularly gather for Sunday lunches - although not always en masse. I'm also particulary proud of the way my parents have always welcomed and embraced additions to the family group. And I'm not just talking about partners. Two of our party yesterday are not relations, but treated as part of the 'pack' naturally and without question. One is an 18 year old lad called Billy, who adopted my parents when he lived next door as a young boy. His family eventually moved to Spain and he would always spend part of his holidays staying with my mum and dad. Now, he has returned to Britain to attend university and most weekends he stays with my mum. He helped my sister move house, is always offering lifts and collections and helps my mum with a variety of tasks - including educating her on how to use the internet! (This was a bit of a shock for my 15 year old nephew when he posted a video on Facebook one night after some late night sledging in an old bath, which included some rather blue language from him, and he immediately received a message from his grandmother! )
The other addition is a friend of my sister who is staying with my mum at the moment. She's always been a true friend to my sister and having her around seems perfectly natural, and an opportunity to offer her a helping hand during a time of change.
Individually, we are from a mix of moulds, but together we are one big family. In fact, the truth is, I'm an interloper myself. Because of my background, the assertion that blood is thicker than water doesn't work for me. We may not be able to choose our relatives, but we can choose who is family to us, and yesterday I was with mine, and it was great!
Yesterday we repeated what is becoming a family tradition - Growler's Day (Growler being the name given to my dad by the children). I come from a large family, and our gathering included 12 adults, 10 children and 9 dogs! The sun broke through as we stood around a woodland pond in Chipperfield, in Hertfordshire, trying to avoid the dogs as they leapt out of the water and shook themselves dry.
I'm immensely proud of being part of such a large family, who regularly gather for Sunday lunches - although not always en masse. I'm also particulary proud of the way my parents have always welcomed and embraced additions to the family group. And I'm not just talking about partners. Two of our party yesterday are not relations, but treated as part of the 'pack' naturally and without question. One is an 18 year old lad called Billy, who adopted my parents when he lived next door as a young boy. His family eventually moved to Spain and he would always spend part of his holidays staying with my mum and dad. Now, he has returned to Britain to attend university and most weekends he stays with my mum. He helped my sister move house, is always offering lifts and collections and helps my mum with a variety of tasks - including educating her on how to use the internet! (This was a bit of a shock for my 15 year old nephew when he posted a video on Facebook one night after some late night sledging in an old bath, which included some rather blue language from him, and he immediately received a message from his grandmother! )
The other addition is a friend of my sister who is staying with my mum at the moment. She's always been a true friend to my sister and having her around seems perfectly natural, and an opportunity to offer her a helping hand during a time of change.
Individually, we are from a mix of moulds, but together we are one big family. In fact, the truth is, I'm an interloper myself. Because of my background, the assertion that blood is thicker than water doesn't work for me. We may not be able to choose our relatives, but we can choose who is family to us, and yesterday I was with mine, and it was great!
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1 comments:
Beautiful post - there is something incredibly special about 'adopting' friends and newcomers into the family network. Water is often purer than blood – my dad (my step father) says I’m his better tadpole... we look alike, act alike and think the same things. ‘pea’s in a pod’ my mom calls us!
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