Day 8: A Photo that Makes You Angry/Sad…
I wasn’t sure what to do for this one. Why would I want to look at pictures that make me angry or sad? When it comes to the picture posts of this particular meme I want to stick to my own pictures if I can, so I was trying to figure out what I could use for this day. And then I remembered this picture. I guess it makes me kind of sad. It’s the seventeen grandkids on my dad’s side of the family. It was taken after the luncheon at the church at my grandpa’s funeral seven years ago. (Side note: a funeral is a HORRIBLE place to take family photos—puffy red eyes anyone?) We took a bunch of family pictures that day because all seven of my dad’s siblings were together and all seventeen grandkids were together. We didn’t have all of the great-grandkids there that day, but other than that—it took my grandfather’s funeral to get everyone to show up in the same place at the same time.
This was the last time all of the grandkids were together in one place at the same time. For various reasons—some live out of state, there’s been a lot of TRAIN!WRECK!DRAMA! with one of my aunts—the entire family has not been together at the same time, and likely will not be again, until the dreaded day comes for my grandmother’s funeral. I don’t want to think about that—but grandma is 95? now. She’s still doing fairly well, but reality is inevitable. And once she’s gone—the general consensus is that the family is going to fall apart entirely. And that’s what makes me really sad. I’ve never been close to my dad’s side of the family. But they’re still family…and to watch it all crumble over sheer stupidity (and one aunt’s untreated mental illness)…it’s just not right. But there’s no room for common sense when everybody thinks they’re the one who’s right and no one wants to deal with the crazy one. (And for once, by “crazy one,” I don’t mean me.)
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