The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: The Family Reunion (06/05/08)
Once a year, I go to my family reunion in a little rural town in New York State.

Just after Memorial Day, the gathering is held, a time to be outside with people we love and share stories, reminisce and catch everyone up with where everyone else has been for the last twelve months.

Uncle Pete and Aunt Betty will be there. Betty has heard Pete’s stories about the War a hundred times. But she patiently listens again, as we fill in details that Pete no longer remembers. He doesn’t mind.

Grandpa Hunter always sits next to Pete. His jokes are bad puns mostly, but we repeat them and laugh because he loved to please us that way.

My mom and dad are just glad we come. For a number of years, I couldn’t make it. Now, though, I never miss, and I think they love that. They have always been proud of my brother and me, to the point of embarrassing us. But that’s just them.

Of course, many more are there, waiting for all the stories I have to tell. And this year, I have lots of stories to share with them all. The birth of my first grandchild, a little girl who is the light of our life these days, will make my grandma happy. My dad will want to hear all about my husband’s retirement. And I’m dying to tell my mom about the masterful garden I grew last summer. She always did love a lush, green summer garden.

Yes, I’m definitely looking forward to spending time with the family this year. I miss them very much throughout the year. And as I get older, I realize just how much more I miss them every year.

So I go. Sometimes my husband comes, too. Sometimes not. The children rarely make it, though that may change over the years. It did for me. But whether or not I have anyone else with me, I have to go.

I am drawn with a bond of stories and memories to that back corner of the little country cemetery. These are my people. The stones mark the places where those I have loved the best and the longest are waiting for me. And some day, I suspect I’ll wait there with them, looking forward all year to the arrival of my daughter or my son, as they stop by to spend an afternoon outside with us, reminiscing and catching us up on everything that everyone else has been doing.

It will be heaven on earth.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 807 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Beth LaBuff 
06/12/08
I enjoyed "meeting" each person at your "Gathering". You've captured all the little things that endear family to us, "Betty had heard Pete's stories about the War a hundred times." I always visit the cemetery when I'm able to return home (once a year) too. I enjoyed this nostalgic piece.
Ed VanDeMark
06/15/08
Early on you mentioned three things that caught my eye. I too had an Uncle Pete and an Aunt Betty (my father's brother and sister) and I to live in a small upstate New York community. Our last reunion however was 1997 just days before my mother died. Thanks for sharing the joys of your family. Keep telling your story I'm sure you'll connect with many other readers. Have a happy reunion this year.