The Southern Yankee by Sue Ellen Ross

In my column last week, I talked about high school class reunions. I haven’t been to one of those in 30 years, and I get more sad as each summer goes by and no celebration with my former classmates is in sight.

I have resigned myself to the fact that it may never be, and I’ve closed the door on my expectations.

But, I seem to remember some of the basics of Psychology 101, and a certain phrase stands out in my mind – ‘when one door closes, another one opens.’

I found this to be true, as attested by an event this past weekend.

My boyfriend’s family is pretty well spread out through the United States – Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. But they have a unique get-together where everyone tries to gather on a regular basis. They call it a ‘cousin reunion.’ I had never heard of this before, and thought it would be a really neat event.

It was.

The family is not real large, but plans still had to be made by members in many areas. Vacations to be scheduled, airplane tickets to buy, food to prepare, etc. We were fortunate that we had to only travel three hours to Shubuta, Miss. to ‘cousin’ Sandy’s house.

The two days of fellowship were filled with appreciation for family, as well as a lot of good conversation, and delicious food. I felt honored to be welcomed into this family tradition.

There is also another door to be opened next weekend.

I am flying to Indiana for my family reunion. My cousin David opens his home (which backs up to the Illinois Forest Preserves) for the gathering.

There will be the usual food, fun and games supervised by my brother Bob, the self-appointed activity director. Our family also is not very large, but Bob and his bullhorn are always used to gather the teams for the popular bean-bag toss and other games. Everyone takes it all in stride, and fun, whether or not they want to partake of the games.

It’s all in the name of family brotherhood (and sisterhood.)

With all these good things going on in my life, I guess I can’t be too petty and complain about not having a class reunion. And, just maybe, as I am driving through my hometown next weekend or shopping at the mall, I may run into an old high school classmate or two. Then I can give the speech I was going to deliver at the class reunion. I’m glad I didn’t throw it away.