The family reunion

I am a bit overwhelmed. By the intense wind swirling in my hair and around my body all day. By the constant sound of the running river next to us. And the company of cousins I haven’t really met for a very long time.

Well, we actually did meet twice these last five months, saying goodbye to two fathers and uncles. And that’s how we came to decide on getting together not wearing black and enjoying each other in a different setting.

I wonder when we last saw each other on a festive occasion. I am guessing a New Years Eve in the mid seventies.

I think it is now statistically proven that people in general socialize more with the family on the female side than the male side. That’s true for my family too. I’ve spent most every Christmas, Easter, Midsummer, vacation and spring break with my mother’s family. My father’s family was bigger and didn’t get together as often on a regular bases. Except for New Years.

On New Years Eve our sixties brick house in the small town Nordmaling south of Umeå was filled with nine cousins, ten parents and a grandmother. My father’s ice lanterns bidding everyone welcome, his daughter’s nicely set table with silverware, mom’s festive food and us kids running up and down the stairs in the three story house up until the clock made us greet the new year and we exhausted were put to bed.

Four boys and five girls in the span of ten years. Today we met in the white wooden house at the beach of the wild running Öre River where my father and his five siblings were born and grew up. Now we are middle age. And only one of our parents is left, my dad’s baby sister Barbro, turning 80 this year.

So, we were sitting in the windy sun on the front yard enjoying our potluck and sharing our stories. Getting to know each other again. My dear aunt Barbro was the honorary guest of course. She was very quiet, unusual for us to see. Barbro lost her beloved husband not even two months ago. And being at her childhood home with all her nieces and nephews was I am sure very emotional.

It is sad knowing that most all our parents are gone. Us girls have promised each other to keep in touch and stay together although we are spread all over Sweden. It feels good. It feels really good. I feel enriched having connected to my childhood cousins again, and we are already planning for meeting again next summer.

It is late, this Sunday at the Midsummer weekend. It’s been a good one. My mother’s family on Midsummer Eve, dear friends Midsummer Day, and then today my father’s family. And the weather has cooperated for the most. The night is white and the blackbird is singing its summer song. It’s been a good one. And I am happy and grateful.