Family

Steve & Rose Quinn home on Bancroft - 1950ish

My family is large.  Both of my parents were born in 1935, the youngest of six children.   I am the third born of their eight children and I in turn gave birth to four children.  The photo on the left was taken on a Mother's Day at my great grandparent's home.  Everyone went to grandma's house on Sunday.

My mother and father did the same thing with us...visit grandma every Sunday after Mass.  My grandma's sisters were usually there along with my Aunt Kate and Uncle Bill and their 10 children.  We stayed all day.

After grandma died in 1987, my mom wanted us to go to her house after Mass.  By then many of my siblings and I were married and procreating.  I had three children by then and lived in another state.  So this did not happen all that often except on holidays.  Fortunately, there is a holiday nearly every month - a reason for us all to get together as a family.

When my mom died in 2008, our 'individual' families' were growing larger (I had a two year old granddaughter), and my Herman family found getting together even harder to accomplish.  We all seemed to have less time and frankly, we hardly ever went to Mass except for the holy days.   Last summer, my dad remarried and moved.  His new home is new to us all and unfamiliar. It's not like going to mom & dad's house.

Times have changed, and I'm trying to make sense of it.  How do I get my grown children to gather together and spend time with each other?  How often is enough?  I dream of monthly family game nights.