California Dreamin

This last week I was brought sad news about Grandpa Jack, my Grandma's husband who died after suffering from pancreatic cancer. This news brought my sister Rachel and her husband Kit, along with my favorite kids Carson, Gwyneth, and Pepper, and my Mom to California for the services. Up they drove after twelve hours in the car, kids spilling out of the car, Mom,Dad and Grandma in tow. Gwyneth is in a stage in which she is enamored of Aunt Jenny. I am loving this and I am taking full advantage of it, because as four year olds can be fickle sometimes , her admiration could shift to someone else. The weekend was choc full of what California has to offer, Disneyland and the beach. I paid my respects to Grandpa Jack and was able to see Aunts and Uncles and cousins, some that I haven't seen for just about two decades. It has been too long,and it was so great to see everyone. Seeing my uncles together reminded me of how proud I felt when as a younger girl , watching my Dad standing with them, cracking jokes. My mom and aunts got emotional remembering all of the great times they had, starting their families. My dad was the oldest sibling, and one by one the 4 boys and 1 girl in their family got married, and started having children at relatively the same time. We all lived in the same neighborhoods in Southern California, and I imagine it was a really fun time for a family, having children, celebrating 1st birthdays, baptisms, little league games. The memories I have of that time, including running around in the back yard, the twilight hours,smell of eucalyptis are interwined with why I feel so content being back in Southern California. Here are my roots. I live less than five miles from the neighborhood where my memories took place. Seeing my uncles with their gray hair makes me miss my dad. Seeing my mom with my aunts makes me long to have what they had when they were young brides and moms. Leaving the funeral I felt a greater sense of and a gratitude of where I came from. How blessed I am and have been.