Family Members

If you come from a large family you may be able to relate to this post. I was at a family gathering recently and found myself surrounded by people I didn't know, and yet they were my family. Feeling a sense of obligation to get to know them I embarked on a journey to meet and make a note of every single person I could. It went something like this:
This is your Great Aunt Nelma and her husband, this is is Judie and her husband, and this is Jeanette. This is Jeanette's daughter and her children and her son and his wife and their children. Those are your great uncles Tom, Richard and Melvin. That's Tom's wife June and their daughter Amanda. This is your cousin Ricky. This is your Aunt Dorothy and her sister (I can't remember her name!!!!). This is your cousin Jennifer and her three children Nathan, Levi, and Gillian. There's cousin Jessica and her husband Daniel and their child Colton. There's Uncle Rob and his wife and their two kids and their daughter's fiance. There's your Uncle Gary and his wife and her children, and oh, there is his first wife Irene. This is Aunt Virginia and Aunt Wilma and their children and grandchildren. There's Aunt Marie and her daughter and son. These are your second cousins and those are your third cousins. These are your cousins four times removed and that over there is their mother.
After a day of this I was feeling rather overwhelmed and wondered how in world I was ever to remember all these people, much less their names. I asked one of my uncles for a count of all the relatives living in that area. He smiled and said, "Oh, about three or four hundred in this town." What?!!!!!! Just then one of my aunts leaned over and said with a little giggle, "Don't worry, honey. I've been in this family 40 years and I still don't know who everyone is!" Well that's comforting!