Day 17 - My family
My family is less than conventional. My parents haven’t been together since I was 12 years old and since then have both remarried.
My Dad married Laura when I was 14 and I gained two step-brothers.. Ashley I wouldn’t know if I passed on the street, but Cory and I have remained close through out the years and given our 12 year age gap he often feels more or less like a real brother. He has one teenage son named Rowan.
My Mom came out when I was around the same age that my Dad remarried but didn’t meet Lynn for another 10 years. They have been married since 2007 and are nice enough to let me live in their basement while I get my life sorted out. They are part of my every day life sometimes minute by minute and I don’t know what I would do without their constant love and support.
My cousin Alison is the closest thing I ever had to a sister (or even a sibling, what with my two step-brothers being all grown up before they even met me). We spent just about every day after school together with Grandma and every weekend at my house in town or at the farm. I went on every vacation with her and she came along on all of mine. She stood up for me all through school and told on me when I was getting myself into trouble. Four years older than me, she makes sure that I know she will always be a little older and wiser than me. Aunty Judy calls us “sisters of the heart”. Her son Benjamin is my nephew whether Al is my sister or not and I am so proud now that he is learning to call me “Aunty”.
One set of Grandparents had just as big of a hand in raising me as my parents and they are now my angels watching over me and I can always feel them by my side when I need them. Its hard to believe they have been gone 15 years…
I had my struggles with the other set (Dad’s parents - the “Corner Gas” family) but in their older age as well as my older age we have grown to love and respect each other very much. My Grandma has now been in the home with a brain injury for almost 3 years and even though she is still with us I miss her very much… but the amazing thing that has come out of it is discovering that I am Grandpa’s little girl after all these years…
