I just got off the Wood Funeral Home website to view pictures and condolences from my Uncle Bud's obituary. He died in February of this year (2008). The pictures are of a generation that I never met. He had 3 kids - Judy and Joy (twins) and Gary. Gary and I were the same age. They have all grown up and had kids and their kids have had kids. Wonderful thing, however, it is sad to see that time has marched on and the only person I know in the pictures of all those people is my uncle's. Yeah, I recognize his kids' pics but time and distance has done a real job on breaking down the definition of family and I feel kind of bad that distance and "life" keeps me out of the picture as they stand around him with all their smiling faces and they don't even know who I am or ever will for that matter. And yet I love him as much as they do even though I know him from a different perspective or generation. The definition of "family" has a new definition. We are all related in some way and my memories of him will be entirely different from theirs. It bothers me that the distance of our understanding of another family member will never even come close to being similar and that's being generous. Somehow it feels like such a loss for me but I find comfort in the fact that they too love him and he loved and enjoyed his time on earth with them.
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