Families are complicated and mine is no exception. My mother’s family had five branches. All of the branches came from the same trunk, my grandparents, but they didn’t all stay connected to the tree for a variety of reasons. My mother did her best to try and stay in touch with all the branches, and because of her efforts, I also tried to keep in contact with her family. Facebook helped me connect with my cousin Rose a few years ago. Rose was coming to Ontario from Saskatoon on a business trip and we invited her to come and stay overnight with us. She had never met us before. She took a leap of faith and we picked her up at the airport in Toronto and toured her around Simcoe County and deposited her back in Toronto the next day so she could go to her conference. It was the beginning of a great friendship. That was 9 years ago.
This past year, Rose and I and two other cousins formed a committee to plan a family reunion this past August. All five branches came together for the first time in many decades. My cousin Judith and her son Markus and grandson Gunther came from Germany. Sixty members of the family gathered on my cousin Bob’s farm, the original family homestead, to rebuild our family. It was amazing! Old hurts and perceived injustices were speculated about by the offspring who didn’t really know what all the fuss was about. We all found a wonderful group of people who are ‘family’ and were willing to accept each other no matter their differences.
My cousin Rose was the most enthusiastic I have ever seen her. She proudly introduced her life partner, Anne Marie, and announced their wedding to one and all. Not everyone in our world is accepting of gay couples, which is unfortunate. These two are precious together. Had members of the earlier generation still been here they would have had a lot to say. As it is, most of the current generation just wants everyone to be happy. We celebrated their union in Saskatoon in September at a wonderful ceremony and reception. Being your authentic self can be taxing and liberating at the same time.
Congratulations to my cousin Rose and her partner Anne Marie. The art piece attached to this blog is their wedding gift. I managed to get a photo of them together at the reunion. I altered the photo to make it look more painterly then printed it on fabric. I added colour using alcohol makers to the background and surrounded the photo with fabric printed with clouds. Since Rose and Anne Marie love golf, the fabric top and bottom reference that. The title of the piece is ‘Cloud Nine’. May you have many happy years together!
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