Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Long Distance Families

I think about family alot and the fact that so much of our family lives away. In fact, they all live a long way aways! (*frown) Whatever happened to the days when families always lived nearby? I'm not sure, but somewhere along the way, miles began to seperate families. Often it is work related and I'm not so sure a whole lot can be done about that. Sometimes it is just a desire for a child that grows up to move off. Whatever the reason, it often makes me very sad that all of our siblings and our daughter live a long ways off.

This is my oldest brother, Brian, now I'm the oldest child, but he's the oldest boy and 3 years younger than me. He and his family live in Culpeper, Virginia. Brian is employed as the Executive Director of the Rappahannock-Rapidan Agency. This is a state agency that deals with Aging, Behavioral Health, Substance Abuse and several other entities. His wife, Linda, is an accomplished artist and well known throughout the area surrounding them. Their daughters, Heather and Elizabeth live nearby.

Above is my "baby" brother, Joel and his family. Joel is the CEO of Merit Resources (an employee leasing company) in Des Moines, Iowa. His wife, Suzy, is a full time homemaker. Ashley is 18 and about to begin her Freshman year at Northern Iowa University. Warren, 13 will be an 8th grader this year.


This is Tommy's oldest sister, Susan and her husband Steve. They are both retired from management with State Farm Insurance. They live in Flowery Branch, Georgia. They have found retirement to be most fulfilling and are enjoying many aspects of life that they have never had time to enjoy before.

This is Tommy's youngest sister, Sara, and her husband Gary. They live in Tacoma, Washington. Gary is in management with Weyerhauser. Sara is a full time homemaker and stays busy with activities surrounding their church and community.

And, last, but certainly NOT least in our daughter, Bridget and her husband Clint and our precious grandson, Clancy. I guess we should have had some kind of "formal" agreement with Clint that, when he married our daughter, he could not take her any further than 4 hours away. (*smile) But, we have managed to see each other quite often, in spite of the distance. Being 8 hours away does make a week-end trip almost impossible and we wish that were not the case. But, we do not dwell on it, because they could be even further away.

I've often thought that perhaps there should be some kind of law prohibiting families from living more than 100-200 miles apart. (*smile) As you can tell, we do have family literally spread all over the US.

Perhaps I will live long enough to see the tides change and families will gravitate closer together in the coming years. It will certainly make dealing with aging parents and all that can sometimes come along with that, much easier. It would also allow Grandparents to share more in the lives of their Grandchildren. And, most of all, it would make for a whole lot more "family time," something I thoroughly enjoy!

The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful family and we are thankful each time we share time with them. We just wish that it were a whole lot more often.


Lea @ CiCis Corner
Lea @ CiCis Corner

Hi there! My name is Lea. I've been wife to the best Hubby for 44 years....Mom to a son and daughter....CiCi to 4 precious Grans....lover of family and friends....enjoy laughter and a good time....shopper....picture taking maniac....maker of delicious fudge....organizational enthusiast....memory maker....Southern Belle...and most importantly.....a Child of the King! Welcome to my little corner!

1 comment:

  1. You have a beautiful, spread out family! :) We go from Chicago to Nashville to Kentucky to Kansas to Texas to Memphis. It's so sad how much of our family we don't get to see because we can't fit them all in!

    ReplyDelete

So glad you stopped by and hope you enjoyed your visit. I love your comments and read each and every one of them and I always try to reply to them. Blessings to you this day!