Families Are Important

My parents always took time to visit with their parents, and brothers and sisters. They also attended all family reunions. They felt that extended families were important and we should all know all of our aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Sometimes we travelled long distances to attend these reunions. My mother’s family on her father’s side (Koyle) had reunions every year. Because of this, we know that side of the family. Her mother’s side (Jex) only had reunions occasionally. My father’s family (Smith) rarely had a reunion and his mother’s family (Ellison) had them when I was younger.

Have you ever thought about how many relatives you really have? Maybe you don’t have as many as I do. It seems all my relatives had large families, and I must have hundreds and hundreds of relatives. Out of all those people, I hardly know any of them. The sad thing is – the only time I see them is at funerals and sometimes at weddings. I think it’s sad that we don’t take time to visit one another at other times. All I have left on my father’s side is cousins, and on my mother’s side, she has one sister-in-law and one brother-in-law left here on earth.

Because to my parents families are important, I also think they are important. I’m glad that by example they taught me this important concept.