Family

This week I have travelled to Newcastle for the wedding of one of my niece's.  I'm not sure why I always think it's such an effort to travel there because it really isn't!  The joy of going there is that I see all the stuff that I am missing but don't know I am missing.  I really miss my Dad.  He passed away the year I got married 34 years ago, so was never really part of my adult life but when I arrive at my brother's house it sometimes hits me how much he is like my dad.  He is the age I remember my Dad at most and he looks like him, talks like him (albeit with an aussie twang) and even sometimes calls me Toots which was the nick name only my Dad ever used for me. Sometimes I can feel quite undone by these moments.  The longing for my Dad in my life (& my Mum) has never gone away. I've got to say that I miss them and I am sad that my kids never knew my Dad because he was a great guy and he would have loved them to bits.

There's nothing quite the same as being around your siblings. I see it in my own kids when they get together. The good, bad and the ugly all makes up the sum total. It's the knowing what you know without the explanations. The ability to pick up a conversation without having to explain everything in between meetings. The looks and gestures that refresh memories. Add to this mix the aunties, uncles, cousins and inlaws and life gets interesting. Families are strange things but they sure do bring a richness to life.