8/6/17 RMB Gulf Shores Reunion
Dear Rita Mae Brown,
Big brother is getting better. Big sister too, although
doctors advised she skip this reunion trip, so she is with us in thought, but
not physically. About 20 of our nearest and dearest have gathered for a week in
this three-story Gulf Shores rental home.
The skies shift, from clear blue to stormy, to blue again,
thunder and lightning of yesterday long forgotten. Air conditioning and ceiling
fans hold summer’s heat and humidity at bay.
We’ve all aged in the last two years, joints creak,
breathing is labored. The young ones are old enough to be caretakers now. Some
have moved on to branches of the service to be caretakers of our country, while
others look after their parents.
Siblings visit, play games, walk on the beach, and catch up
on each other’s lives. We get to know the ones that are now sharing their
lives, husbands and wives, nieces and nephews, from the youngest of five who
likes to ask, “What are you doing?” to the adventurous duo that arrived with inflatable
kayak in tow.
We saw a rainbow, big and bold and bright, as we came out of
a restaurant. My sister and her daughter wanted a picture of them in front of
the rainbow. So, there we stopped, in the middle of the parking lot, to take
photos that memorialized the moment. Then we scurried to find our respective
cars full of natives from the south, not nearly as enchanted by the storm and
the rainbow, as we Californians.
We all get along for a handful of days, finding common
ground, and enjoying the best of one another.
Best wishes,
Loraine
