The End of Isolation

Yesterday, for the first time in almost 14 months, my big, fat, goofy family got together for a gathering at my sister’s house. No masks, no social distancing, and no politics. It was supposed to be a picnic, but it was freezing cold outside so Linda somehow shoehorned 20 of us around her ginormous kitchen table.

The kid’s table in the back left corner was especially rowdy and obnoxious, but they have all earned their rowdiness, having endured a year of virtual education. And because it was Memorial Day, Linda supplied all the patriotic decor. A couple of speeches about family members who paid the ultimate price to preserve our freedom were made. The food was spectacular. There were burgers and dogs of course, but also plenty of old family favorites like the aptly named pink fluff, (a concoction that our Scottish import Ruaridh can’t bring himself to try), and Nanny’s old ice cream cake. But mostly the afternoon and evening were spent hugging each other, it having been so long since we had been together. In this regard we are very lucky. Most families this large and diverse don’t get along as well as we do and would have considered an 18 month pandemic induced separation a godsend! For us it felt like an interminable and unholy thing.

After dinner we all gathered out on the deck and enjoyed a fire and several slices of ice cream cake. A thousand conversations were had, jokes were cracked, unmerciful teasing and exaggerated tales of family lore broke out like mushrooms after a week of rain...

Its funny how much my brother Donnie has begun to look like Dad recently. I’m glad. Makes me miss him a little less. Mom and Dad were surely smiling down on us yesterday. This was the kind of thing they lived for.

Not everyone was able to make it. My kids and their spouses were missing. So was Donnie and Baby’s son Sean, as well as our west coast operation of Lauren and Catherine.

But this was special. Someone made the observation of how grateful we should be for all the brilliant scientists, doctors and nurses who worked their fingers to the bone keeping us safe and finding the needle in the hay stack vaccine that made this day possible. Yes. God bless them everyone.