Last week, my Aunt Bette turned 90 and had a birthday party at my house here in East Boothbay. She lives in Concord, Mass., but she wanted the party to be here, with all her clan in attendance. It is not a large clan, and she is not my real aunt, but we are all bound by the common bond of being only children, and we have made our own family.
Aunt Bette's daughter Nancy, grew up with me while her mother worked, and her grandmother took care of us. Now she and her husband Cliff, live and work in the education world of Washington, DC. They have two sons, one of whom is married, with twin 3 year old daughters, who all live in Minnesota. Their other son, John, is a videographer in DC, and he brought Aunt Bette up from Concord 3 days before the others got here.
None of us had ever really lived together - ever. I really barely knew the boys, let alone Nick's wife and the twins. But we had a remarkably genteel time together, including a large party of Aunt Bette's old friends and relations from Aroostook, Lewiston, and other odd and remote parts of Maine. I am quite proud of us all. It worked quite wonderfully for all of us, and especially the 90 year old at the top of the pyramid.
I can't say exactly why it worked so well, perhaps because all that was expected was that we interact with Aunt Bette, and have a good time. So we played a lot of cribbage and Scrabble and other new games, generally ignored the important affairs of the world, went for a wonderful sail on Priscilla, and ate some good cake but forgot the birthday candles. Oh well. What was important was that we were together with her to memorialize a big day. That was enough, and it was everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment