The glue that holds the family together

My grandmom Van Den Heuvel died 17 years ago; she was the glue that held the extended family together. In the years since her passing, my family has lost some of the best traditions, one of which was always getting together for Thanksgiving.

To share the "burden" of the meal, my aunt and my mom would trade off years. Who ever had the meal would take care of the main parts plus a few side dishes and the guest family would bring a few favorite side dishes with them. There would be aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, grandparents, and friends squeezed into one house. One year we had 24 people for dinner. We could never sit all at one time, so the men sat first and the children sat at the children's table. Once that part was complete, the men would waddle over to the living room to watch the game and the kids would race each other up and down the stairs, walk outside, and/or sit at the women's table. It was at the second seating that the best news/ gossip could be heard. I always enjoyed sitting there and listening to my older cousins, mom, aunt, grandmom and other relatives talk about life. It was a wonderful experience.

This year will be the first year that the family is not getting together. Well, I should say most of the family. My parents are staying in Florida because my youngest sister and her family are traveling to them for Thanksgiving and Disney World. My sister who lives in Virginia is staying there to work on her house that she recently put on the market. My oldest sister is doing something with her husband at the American Legion. I had offered to make the Meal for the sister who lives nearby, but now am left with only my immediate family (not that they are not important, but I make dinner for them every night). My aunt and uncle are doing something separate from their children and their children are going to different homes for their Thanksgiving meal. What used to be a wonderful, crazy, loud Thanksgiving meal that lasted for nearly three hours is now a thing of the past.

Grandmom would have been so sad.