Family Time of the Year

This time of the year, we all focus on family. The Thanksgiving holiday gives us a time to reflect on those we love, as we gather together to celebrate. It also gives us time to think of the empty seats at the table, those who are no longer with us to celebrate the family holiday.

At this time of the year, I think of some special marriages that took place during the month of November. My dear parents-in-law were married on Nov. 3, 1938. He was handsome, she was beautiful, and a year and a half later, they were blessed with their only child, a baby boy, who was destined to become my husband, father of three wonderful children, and grandpa to 6.

Then there was my own parent's marriage--which took place on a rainy Nov. 21, 1942. The time was WWII, when the young men were marching off to war, and my father was among them. She was resplendent in her handmade lace wedding dress, he, a handsome chap in his Army Greens. Very soon after the wedding, a child was on the way! Shortly after their marriage, he did leave for basic training, then on to Africa, the staging area for the 1943 invasion of Sicily and Italy. This was the turning point of the war, when the Allies finally got Hitler's army on the run. Father developed a serious medical condition while serving, and was not in the war for a long time, but he was away long enough to miss the birth of his first-born child, me, in Sept. 1943.

My mother had two sisters, and one did not marry until "later in life". She was in her 40's when she met the man of her dreams. Because she was unattached for a long time, and had no children of her own, she doted on me, dressing me up, taking me to tea rooms, and we had a very close relationship. She was married on Nov. 22, 1951??? (I need my brother's help, he is the family historian on these things!) My aunt and uncle met with a tragic accident in 1961, they were hit by a car while crossing the street one night, she died very shortly after being taken to the hospital, and he died 2 days later.

Then, Nov. 23, 1963 was a day many of my age remember, the day President John F. Kennedy was assasinated. That day will certainly live on in our minds.

So this time is a time of rememberance for me, for personal reasons. I recall the ones who went before me, who shaped my life, and a national hero who left the earth at all too young an age.

Anyway, I hope your day of thanksgiving is filled with good smells, good eats, happy memories of those who went before you, a table of diners who you love surrounding the feast you have prepared. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!