This will have to be quick because I am in the middle of a big family reunion. Wait, there\u2019s Uncle Vince. You better quit those butts or you\u2019ll never make it to 60. And that was a fact.<\/p>\n
The reunion is taking place, you see, on my laptop. I am lucky to have a big sister who appointed herself the unofficial archivist for the family. God knows how many backbreaking hours she put in, organizing Dad\u2019s home movies that went way back into two DVDs.<\/p>\n
But what an inspiring treat, what an inspiring story. Isn\u2019t that what a family is? A story? A story different from any others?<\/p>\n
I was at the tail of the baby boom, so I am seeing so many of the previous generation I had never known. I watched four of my grandparents, three of whom died before I came around, dandle various babies whose identities were obscure. I saw my uncles go off to war and return safely. I saw my mother when she was the most beautiful woman I could imagine. And my father\u2019s boat, varnished passionately to a blinding sheen.<\/p>\n
I saw my squirming, squalling self as a baby. And I saw my brother Bobby as a baby, his Down syndrome evident even in the crib. Three years older than me, he would only live to 12. He hardly ever got to be more than a baby.<\/p>\n
The moments that left no doubt as to the true story of my family were the scores of scenes that were based in our faith: baptisms, weddings, funerals, confirmations, burials, even my uncle Jim Morissey\u2019s ordination. Clearly our faith was the spiritual gravity that held us all together as a family, a story.<\/p>\n
My sister went to an enormous amount of work digging through the attic and splicing together usable footage. Today\u2019s technologies make keeping a family and faith legacy much, much easier.<\/p>\n