Family Ties

I have not posted much through the past week. We have had a wonderful 'guest' - a dear family member I did not know until my dear little mother and I met her at the airport nearly a week ago. Tomorrow morning we will make the journey back to the airport for her departure but our hearts will struggle with the goodbyes we must say after a week full of getting acquainted and catching up with the many lost years of our lives. The story does not need to be repeated here. It is enough to say that a family was torn apart many years ago and the effect on those who remain has been great. Our dear one was a very small child when she attended the wedding of my dear parents over 62 years ago. Contact was re-established many years later and she and her sweet family had a brief visit with my mother and father more than 20 years ago. I lived quite far away and did not get to meet them.

We have had a wonderful time together this week. Our dear one has begun to research and piece together our family history - as I started to do a few years ago. Now we have joined together to complete the project. We have learned much and reminisced a lot about the little tid-bits we remember and things learned from family members long gone. Oh, how we wish we had asked more questions and paid more attention when our dear ones were still with us. We want to learn all we can about the family that remains and spend as much time as we can together, appreciating the ties that bind us together while we still have the chance.

Family ties are precious things

woven through the years,

of laughter, love and tears.

Family ties are cherished things

forged in childhood days,

by love of parents deep and true,

by tradition, by family ways.

Family ties are treasured things

and far though we may roam,

the tender bond with those we love

still pulls our hearts toward home.

Author Unknown

Picture and poem compliments of my.homewithgod.com