Photoessay #808 - Family of Origin

My family of origin---

Last month at the barbecue following my niece Teresa's bat mitzvah. Held in a nearby city park, hosted by my ex brother-in-law Ed. He's working his grill serving up the picnic food. Nice grill. I know that Ed participates in football game tailgates. This kind of grill would work real well for lots of occassions.

Now, generally we wouldn't participate in anything like this. But we did get before and after game collective tailgates established for Oregon softball. And we enjoyed that so much, really fun. Dennis even checked out the large outdoor food equipment at Cabela's on our way back. Ilana borrowed a grill last night from the sister of one of her friends. Turns out, the sister didn't exactly know about it. Ilana and I used this picture as a guide of what kind of stuff we should bring to her own cookout last night.

This park provided quite a few gazebos for family and group events. The cantor joked, when she and her family got to the park, her husband asked how are we going to find the right party...she said "Look for the one decorated with balloons" But just about every one was decorated with ballons!

Ed's sister and brother undoubtedly helped with the barbecue, as this was his part of the celebration. They added great local corn on the cob, buttered, wrapped in foil and put on the grill. Kind of shook my sister up but delicious!

OK, back to what I started with. My family of origin, with some spots on the lens. My brother, Charlie, my sister Pam and my mom. As I mentioned, my mom made the trip accompanied by my cousin Mary Ann determined to have a great time. and she did. My sibs and I communicate a lot, we're pretty close. They both live a lot closer to Rockford (my brother in the greater Chicago area, my sister in Lafayette, IN). See how my family became midwestern when I wasn't paying attention?

My mom just had some surgery this week. My brother came the night before and got her through the procedure. My sister will go next weekend. My mom was discharged the next day to the skilled nursing facility 'across the street'. She may be able to go home when my sister comes.

I just asked Dennis if he was glad he had gone to Indiana to share the family event. He grudgingly agreed that he was happy that he went. But it reminded him why he does not live in the Midwest. Though the weather was great that weekend.

My dad died two years ago. I've worked on mellowing my feelings regarding his difficult nature. I said, at one point, "don't you wish that Father was here for this?" to my mom. Nah, she was fine that he wasn't there as he would have been critical and demanding and she would have spent all of her time taking care of him. This way, she could relax and enjoy the event.

Maybe a theme of summer barbecues?