Family

I spent the last week on a road trip with four other members of my love monkey’s family, in a Toyota Sienna, traveling to his youngest brother Jeff’s ‘destination wedding’ in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where we would meet up with the rest of the clan.

Five people in a car for what turned out to be 2,629 miles could easily have been a comic disaster. Instead, it was comedy all right, but more of a sort of offbeat romantic family comedy. We had a wonderful time—playing car games of various kinds, talking, singing along with the Beatles; taking turns sleeping in the ‘way back’ seat, exclaiming over the scenery or taking pictures from the side window.

As soon as we arrived we were caught up in the wonder of nature and the swirl of family events; trips to the lake, BBQs, overnight visits from small nephews.

The wedding ceremony itself—simple, sincere, and not over-long—was held outdoors in a luxurious country-club setting outside of Jackson. It was beautiful and left me feeling touched and optimistic; connected to this family and to a sense of familial well being.

The groom is one of 16 siblings (it’s a long story) so it’s safe to say his side of the family sort of dominated the assembly—out of the 95 or so family members gathered, he could probably claim all but about 12 of them, their ages ranging from 2 to 90. Many had not seen each other for more than 15 years or had never met, and it was the first time this particular configuration had ever been gathered together. All had driven or flown in from great distances to be there.

It was a complicated family grouping with Jeff the only common link for many of them, and yet it was amazing how good-natured everyone was, how happy they were to meet each other and claim each other as family. 85 year old great-uncles were dancing with ex-step-nephew’s girlfriends, the food and drink was good and plentiful, little girls dominated the dance floor, and the band went on playing late into the night.