Families

This past weekend I had the opportunity, if you can call it that, to attend a funeral of my friend's grandmother, Sally Eleanor Polk. While it was a sad event, I was uplifted by the notion of family. I have been blessed with an immensely loving and supportive family. We are close. We are passionate. We love, laugh, and cry together. I have always felt that my family was something special and somewhat had pity for other people, only given "mediocre" families. As arrogant as it sounds, it is hard to imagine that when you are so blessed with a gift of an amazing family, that it may not be so rare.

This weekend, I found that I am not the only one with a great support system of family. I found that, indeed, other people have loving connections with their relatives. As I saw people laugh over the memories of their lost loved one as well as cry over the loss of that person, my heart was filled with what can be described as joy--joy of the fact that there are other wonderful families out there. This may not sound as profound to you as it was to me, but oh well.

Another less-than-profound revelation that occurred to me this weekend was how much impact individual members of one's family has on a person. As I watched countless people give testimonies about how this woman had really shaped the person they are today, I thought about how my own grandmothers had had an impact on who I am. Until now, this impact has gone unnoticed. When I think about it, I realize that I have my grandma Judy's strong, opinionated personality, taking on the world, not afraid of anyone. On the other hand, there is a part of me that is my great-grandmother Lillian, my "Mom-Mom", that is very compassionate as well as "domestic", taking joy in things like gardening and cooking. Even though my contact with these women was brief and considerably surface-level (as I suppose most adult-child relationships are), I can attribute much of the person I am today to their influence.