From the editor...
Reunions
Some of the fondest memories of my childhood were summers in late July and early August when everyone made their way to my grandparents’ for our annual homecoming or family reunion. This was the time when the family made their annual pilgrimage to the original compound or the place we fondly referred to as home. We were graced by aunties and uncles and cousins who lived in other places and there was always a sense that what we were doing was important.
The children all sat in the foreground listening to stories told by the elders of things that had transpired during the previous year. Food was prepared in the lavish tradition of our family with signature dishes being designated to the most talented and creative among the clan. There were time-honored rituals of identifying each family member and making sure the children knew how their places in the family came to be.
I relished in those times because it gave me a sense of who I was and the importance of my existence here on earth.
There is something about family reunions that causes each individual to know that despite the transient nature of our world, we each have a connection to something that is permanent and exclusively ours.
In 2010 our family came together after many years over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and it ended with a commitment to do for the newest generation of children in our family, what was lovingly done for us in years past. And so, we are working feverishly at this moment to connect with each branch of our very large family to make sure each is represented at the family table this year on Thanksgiving Day.
The surviving elders and the “younguns” will gather and we will tell stories just as was done by those in our distant past. The children will do as they always do, complain about having to listen to stuff that is of little or no importance. But, despite their complaints, we who are mature, will tell them anyway, knowing that in years to come when they gather to share and reminisce, what will then be past will become the present or gift for generations to come.
Deigratia,
Bonnie
