Family: How Can You Define The Word

Have you ever known a family so long that you are considered a part of their family?  I do...I consider myself lucky because I have so many friends that I consider them a part of my family just as much as they consider me a part of theirs.  However, one family sticks out in particular.

I have known this particular family for years, probably since my sister and their youngest daughter were kids.  I call everyone in the family Aunt or Uncle and consider them as such, I call the grandparents by what their blood grandkids call them and when explaining our relationship to outsiders I refer to the kids as cousins.  It is hard to explain: "well, our parents have been friends for so long....we just call eachothers parents Aunt or Uncle so-in-so."  Not very many people can understand that dynamic.

The memories are numerous and the time spent together is few and far between.  The kids are all grown with their own kids so we rarely see eachother anymore....but when we do it is a very memorable time had for all. 

Recently, they lost their dad and grandfather.  This was one of the nicest, funniest and genuine people you could ever meet.  When this family grieves, we as a family grieve with them.  I was sad for them all.  The funeral made me think back to the days when we were kids and the memories we have made together.  They played a slide show at the funeral and one picture caught me by surprise.  It was a picture taken at the grandfathers and grandmothers 50th Wedding Anniversary and Vow Renewal.  It was of me and my parents with them.  I leaned over to my mom and whispered "That is us with Mom and Pop."  She shook her head.  Later, when they returned from the celebration of life after the funeral we talked about that picture and how much that meant to us that our picture was included in the family slide show.  We reminiced about how that day my dad was asked to say a few words and we were all crying...mostly because of what he was saying but part because he was asked.....that meant a lot to my dad to be included.

As I drove home from the funeral these thoughts flooded my mind and I remembered back to our time together.  Birthdays spent together, Halloween hayrides, playing hit the deck on the trampoline when cars would pass by the house (when they moved out of town into the country, hit the deck came increasingly more hard), sleep-overs, my parents being asked to be Godparents to the kids, singing karaoke at my parents house, video games, sad times, happy times, and all the things that go along with our families history.

I love each and every one of these people with my whole heart.  They are all genuine people.  They would give you the shirt off their backs or the last penny in their bank account if you needed it.  We have probably been through everything together and the fact remains that none of us are related by blood or marriage.  Through the years we have come to love one another as though we were. 

In this case a definition can't be put on family.....I wouldn't want one to be.

Lacey