My Second Family

Last weekend as a family (including Andrew who was home for Spring break) we all drove down to Rhode Island for lunch at one of our favorite eating haunts, Wright's Farm Restaraunt (aka Wright's Chicken Farm). All you can eat chicken, pasta & sauce, fries, salad. The food is always great and we're always stuffed at the end. Anyway, as good as a trip to Wright's is, that's not the point, or the best part. Every March my second family and I celebrate the plethora of March (or thereabouts) birthdays on Janet's side of the family, together, and as a tradition this has been the favorite place to go. They have been my family for nearly a quarter century. Every March, and every other Thanksgiving, everyone else always comes, and eats, and enjoys each other's company. Truly enjoys, because these are people you can't help but be comfortable around almost instantly.

Divorce is a hard, hard thing to face and go through, and though it is, in principle, between two people, it never is. Families are always bigger than the walls of your home. That's how it works. We told the kids something on that terrible day recently which is something I want to say now, ever since we sat down and ate and laughed and talked of everything except what we're all facing in the near future, in our own ways. Until we donned our coats and said our goodbyes, and at last, something was said, brief, and out of love, and those few words meant more to me than I can say. To Jon, and Mel, and Bob and Kaia and Reed and Cynthia and Maurice and Paul and Holly, to Mitch and Karen and Phillip and Tim and Sally and Austin and Sydney, our much-missed Roger and Fluerette, and everyone else in my second family, nieces and nephews and cousins and Aunts and Uncles... I love you all and you are my family, no matter what happens, or what is on a piece of paper. I promise you always will be. You have no choice, not really. I may not be at every family function as time goes on, but there will be some (after all, you're all coming to the house for Easter, ). I'm still here, and I'll always be here for you, any of you. And you'll always, always, be my family.