Family Reunion: Making Memories

Thursday, May 17th, 2018     by Debra DuPree Williams     Start the Conversation

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams
We’ve recently had my husband’s two sisters and their husbands visiting. Sue, the younger of the two, and her husband Bill live in Athens, Greece, and we don’t see them very often. Kay and her husband Randy live in Birmingham and they’ve come several times since we’ve lived in North Carolina. It’s been five years since the three siblings were together.

One thing families always seem to do is reminisce about the olden days. We are no exception.  They talked about people and places they all remember from their childhoods. I’ve heard these stories so often after almost forty-five years of being married to the baby of the family, that I know many of the people and places, too. And it doesn’t hurt that my husband’s mother grew up in my hometown. We graduated from Andalusia High School, twenty-eight years apart.

Talk And More Talk

We talked for days, sharing this memory and that one. We shared laughter and we shared tears. We talked about their beloved parents and how proud they would be of where each child’s, grandchild’s, and great-grandchild’s path has taken them. We talked about how differently they each saw the same shared moments of their lives. Three separate perceptions of the same events.

One thing we all agreed upon while talking was how quickly the years have gone by. We marveled at how old our children are. We all asked, “how can they be that old when I’m not even that old?” I think this must be true of most of us. We look and feel every one of our years, but in our hearts and our minds, we are still that twenty or thirty-something young person just starting out on this journey. If you aren’t there yet, just wait. I promise it’ll be here before you know it.

Golden Anniversary

Sister number one, Kay, and her husband celebrated their fiftieth anniversary while we were all together. We had an intimate family gathering complete with a little cake for them to slice. That was a special time for all of us. How many people these days stay married for that long? Between the three couples we have a total of one-hundred-forty-four years of marriage! Now, if you throw my sister and her husband into the mix, we have two-hundred years of marriage. Wow! Two-hundred years ago, it was 1818. Alabama, the state in which we were all born (with the exception of Bill who was born in Greece) wasn’t even a state. That didn’t happen until 1819.

As we celebrated with Kay and Randy, we all marveled again at how this could possibly be us. Married this many years. That should be our parents, at best.

Time does have a way of slipping by. Those moments we are together are precious. Treat them thusly. Tell the people in your life that you love them. Tell them how they’ve influenced your life, made a difference in it. We don’t know when our next reunion will be. None of us is promised tomorrow. Share the message within your heart today.

Share the Good News

And if you have loved ones who don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, don’t be afraid to share the Gospel message with them. After all, we want to have a family reunion in Heaven where each and every family member will be present. What a glorious day!

Are you having a hard time believing the number of candles on your birthday or anniversary cake? Share your thoughts with us.
TWEETABLE

No Comments

Comments are closed.