A Woman's Work – Brooke Basically Blogging

 

When you come to party in our family two things I can guarantee will happen. First, there will be too much food. Secondly, if it’s a birthday celebration. Wait for the Stevie Wonder version of Happy Birthday. I love my family.

We celebrated Mom Mom Bertha’s 90th Birthday over the weekend. Mom Mom has her good days, but dementia is hard to witness. I could tell that she enjoyed seeing the farm filled with all of her family and friends. Over one hundred people came to the farm to celebrate Mom Mom Bertha.

The heat was brutal. I wasn’t sure how Sydney would handle it. She stayed inside and played. After the rain she came outside to enjoy the party. Harrison was a great help. He was shucking corn and they had a lot of corn! Then he reminded me of Vin Diesel in The Pacifier. Whenever I looked around he had at least five of his cousins surrounding him. He loved it too.

The party began with a beautiful prayer and everyone joining hands under the tent. It was a special moment. I was in charge of serving our guests. Along with my sissy, and cousins, Karen, Diana, and Tweety, that what we call her. I have always admired the women that work in the cafeteria in schools. I would be fired. Let’s just leave it at that.

But as I served our family and in between the times when the line slowed down. I took a moment to look around the farm and under the tent. There are so many generations and cultures represented in our family. It was a moving experience for me. I looked at my uncles grilling just like my Pop Pop Matthew used to do. It made me smile.

Sadness fell over me when I thought of my family that are now angels in heaven. And memories flooded my heart. I watched my cousins that I used to walk around with them on my hip. Now they are 16, 26 and the list goes on. I realized I was old.

Our generation was moving on up. I realized our generation was given more responsibilities. When I looked around and saw all of the younger cousins taking selfies, tweeting and snap chatting.  I thought to myself that used to us! Now, I am trying to look cute with sweat stains on my shirt.

The menu consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, hot sausages, grilled chicken, fried chicken, barbecued chicken, spare ribs, string beans, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, meatballs, corn on the cob, potato salad, pasta salad, and marinated carrots. Are you wondering what we had for dessert?

We had a small cake for Mom Mom. The “real” dessert was the watergate salad, sweet potato pie, apple pound cake, carrot cake, pound cake, watermelon and I can’t recall the rest. Even with the rain nothing could stop our celebration.

The celebration for Mom Mom made me realize how blessed I am to have this huge family.  This isn’t even including all of our Michigan family. This farms holds so many memories. I am so glad that I am in Delaware so that my children can grow up appreciating and valuing family.

I think they finally know all of the Delaware/Maryland family by name now. It only took four years. This celebration was a reminder that tomorrow is not promised and we have to enjoy and fellowship with our family as often as we can.

Is there a feud right now going on in your family? Are you the black sheep of the family and avoid family functions? Does drama break out at your family gatherings? Don’t be ashamed. It happens in every family. Here’s the solution put on Before I Let Go by Frankie Beverly and Maze and everything will be alright.

But at the end of the day.  We are family!