The warmth of family

In the world we live in today, many people do not experience family. You hear of people kicking out their kids (at 14 and 15), or not speaking to family members for years. But I am one of the few and lucky ones in our society today.

I have loving parents, brothers, a great Aunt and Uncle, cousins, nieces, and nephews and yes my children. Now, we fight and argue among ourselves and we can fight, but I dare anyone step in against us.

This past weekend I flew in to Alabama to be with my parents before they flew to Africa to spend three months with my baby brother and his family. The visit was to be a short one, but one I had to make. To hug them goodbye before their journey began.

My parents, Aunt and Uncle knew I was coming and no ones else. It was to be a surprise; my daughter didn’t know I was flying in. To see the expressions on their face was priceless.

I would walk into the bedroom or kitchen and as each one walked in they would be surprised. The first was my niece, Savannah, she opened the door to the bedroom and there I stood, I said, “Hello Good Looking!” She just walked back in the living room saying, “Oh My God!” over and over and began to cry. We hugged and laughed at the same time.

Second, we were preparing dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin walked in the house. Aunt Clara looked at me and said, “It’s Gary!” I walked back in the kitchen and he just began talking like usual. I started talking to him before I walked out – “Next time you want to blogg me, be nice.” his eyes were as big as dinner plates. It was wonderful, we hugged and hugged.

Third my daughter -- mouth of the south. She drove in from Mississippi to do the same thing I did, just to visit with Mom and Dad before they left. Now, I haven’t seen my daughter since before Destanie came and left our lives and the visits then were focused on Nicole. Momma made her take the luggage to the room and of course she didn’t want to do it at that moment, but with my mom fussing at her she did. As she opened the door, I looked dead in her eyes and said, “Don’t even think you are going to sleep in this room.” She dropped her luggage and practically jumped in my arms. She cried more than I did.

Of course I had to drive the vet’s office to surprise my other cousin Angel while she was at work. I walked in the office and asked the lady up front to do me a favor. “Please go back and tell Angel there is some woman out here claiming you slept with her husband and she wants to see you NOW!” Leave it to Angel to laugh and said, “YEP, I did it where is she….” Can’t get one on her can I? But, as she walked around the corner she saw Maria and was excited to see her, then she glanced at me, and came running; another hug for the day. Aren’t hugs GREAT!

So, in all I had a great weekend with the warmth of family by my side. Then as I was flying home, I giggled at some things my Aunt and I talked about, cried at seeing my parents drive away, but a warmth came over me of the hugs I had from the ones I love the most.

As I closed my eyes and rested I can still see my Aunt sitting at the kitchen table laughing, Uncle Larry walking through the house, Gary talking about the softball game, Daddy sitting and calling me sissy and Momma running around trying to make dinner and stopping to give me a kiss. Maria climbed up on the couch with her husband and Savannah laying out on the love seat and they are arguing about what to watch on TV.

So, when you hug someone, hug long and hard like we do. They last forever and a hug to me is worth more than any amount of money in the world.