Part 5
In the early 1970’s when I was teaching 6th grade, I was invited to one of my student’s house for dinner with her family. This was a very close knit family. They had a big house, with a pool table and ping pong table in their basement, and a number of musical instruments that various members of their household played. I stayed at their house until 12:30 a.m. playing games and music with the family. I would be invited to their house a number of times that year. The warmth and welcomeness of all the family members, from parents to kids, was incredible. I should have been happy when I got home, but I wasn’t. I was somewhat depressed. I thought about my own family and how though we lived together, we didn’t have that kind of warmth. My parents didn’t get along all of the time, We rarely sat and did things together. I remember calling up my sister Leslie after one of my visits and telling her how I felt and how I wish we had had that kind of family. Her reply was that someday I would, with my own kids and family. It was somewhat consoling but I was still sad about what I had missed.
I did grow up and have the close family that I wanted. My wife, my son, my sisters and their families have become that family that I missed having. I feel for my brother Franz and what he missed, never knowing his father; his mother dying when he was so young; the family that he could have been part of living an ocean away not even knowing whether he existed or not. He, too, had to wait for his own wife, children and grandchildren, his second wife and her children and grandchildren and now us to have a family that we all should belong to. In addition to when I met my wife and when David was born, Franz’s meeting with our family was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever been part of.
