Our Families

When we're little, our families are our world.  They envelope us and we live in their environment.  If they love us, we're fortunate.  If not, the experience scars us.

I was lucky to have two parents who devoted themselves to their boys.  My parents had limitations but they did their best.  I respect them for that.  My mother and father considered raising children to be very important and they sacrificed for my brother and me.  Their generosity was real.

I assumed the four of us would live forever.  Sadly, my mother died young (in 1990 at age 54) and my brother also died young (in 1991 at age 33).  Both had unexpected medical conditions (breast cancer and congenital heart defect).  Their deaths came without warning and, in the space of a year, my family was cut in half.  Those events sharply disturbed my view of the universe.  What seemed stable was suddenly uncertain.  The fragility of life became much too manifest to me.

I know from your blogs that some of you have loving families you enjoy seeing.  A few of you were unlucky and have families you've fled.  Either way, our families affect us deeply.

I know this is a personal subject so if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine.  But if you are open to discussion, how are relations with your parents and siblings?  Do you see them often?  Does your mother still tell you how to dress?  Does your brother tease you?  Are your parents proud of you?