Family

Two weeks ago on an ordinary Saturday morning, I went down to my parent’s house to put a few stitches on my sister-in-law Carol’s quilt. We had a good time together, and I made sure to have a picture taken of me wearing my beautiful black glasses, since all my blog fans were clamoring to see them. I returned home, picked up Nick and went to Albany to do a little shopping. We were at Ross’s looking for a jacket for Nick, laughing and having a good time, when my cell phone rang. I saw it was my brother Dave calling. I answered cheerfully, and thought I was hearing wrong when he told me his son Tyler had been killed that day in Iraq. I guess I was blindly optimistic, but I truly believed that with all the prayers going up for Tyler, he just had to coming home safely. Nick looked at me in concern as my legs gave out and I sank to my knees on the floor. I still can hardly believe it’s true.

Two weeks later, all the relatives have flown back home and it’s time to go back to work and get back in the routine of life. We have celebrated Tyler’s life and will continue to honor his memory as we miss his presence. I have been amazed at the strength and courage shown by both sets of Tyler’s parents, and the love and caring through all the layers of family.

All of Dave’s brothers and sisters were together for the first time in several years. John came from the Yukon, meeting his son Steven in Vancouver and traveling down together. His daughter Jewel and her baby from Alaska came, as did his daughter Faith and her family from California. Brother Mark flew in from Alabama, and Brother Tom and his wife Jewel from Indiana. Our mother’s brother Ves and his wife Jan came from Missouri (and got to stay with us), and Dad’s sister Lela and her daughter Tammy came from Nebraska. My parents had a house full and we had some wonderful family time together, with aunts, uncles, cousins etc. playing ping pong, Dutch Blitz, dominoes, looking at scrapbooks and pictures and of course, talking. Eric came up with a new game to play with 4 -year-old Simon, the "Old People taking a Sunday Drive" game. Whoever drives their car the slowest wins!



I fast forwarded through more than 60 hours of video for a couple of days to find some of Tyler’s stunts so I could get them on a DVD. We came up with some excellent footage of Tyler on his blades jumping over the four mailboxes, jumping over one and then two garbage carts and doing a 180 or 360 turn before landing, then measuring them for the camera so we knew he was jumping off a one-foot ramp over nearly four-foot garbage carts. He also jumped over his friend Danny who was sitting on a box, and with great determination attempted some skateboard stunts while wearing his Uncle Will’s flippers. Craig said he remembers when Tyler was skateboarding with the flippers, kids were lined up sitting in the front yard watching. He and Craig also had a wonderful "fake wrestling" match, with Tyler the victorious "Giant". Lots of other good stuff as well, including a commercial for what all the good roller bladers drink (apple cider) and an impromptu version of "I’m a little teapot". My niece Jody’s husband Kevin made the DVD for me and did a great job. Thank you Kevin. We will enjoy the great memories of Tyler forever.

I have nine siblings, 25 nieces and nephews, and 20 great-nieces and nephews. (Hopefully I counted right.) With those numbers, you can’t be equally close to everyone, especially when they live so far away. I’ve always loved them all, but after the past two weeks, I value them and the relationships we have even more than I did before.