This post is mostly for my family, and friends who know some or all of them.
I flew to Irvine in early June to spend time with Lyle, Keith and Sam and celebrate two big events in their lives – Sam’s high school graduation and Keith’s 60th birthday. Keith’s family was well represented, Lolly’s not so much, but we all blended as one family and that was utterly satisfying. Keith’s Mom, her partner Avery, Keith’s siblings and their spouses and kids (now all grown up), and his Aunt Ellie made a great contingent. They use these family events to reune as a group and renew their ties. And when we are all together I feel close to them as if they were my own family. They are all pictured below.
I was, of course, the matriarch and everyone made much of me and I was never alone. Jenny, Charlotte and Brandon were there – Brandon is Charlie’s now-very-serious-boyfriend and it was his first meeting with Lolly, Keith and Sam.
Commencement was in the UCI basketball arena the morning after I arrived, and there were 600 graduates. It was more like a university event and made me wonder what the universities are doing to make theirs bigger, better, different. The program was acceptibly short but then it took an hour for all the grads to walk up on stage and get their empty diploma cases!
Sam is a most satisfying grandchild (the family says I think that way about all 6 of them). He is thinking seriously about becoming an engineerand was accepted into UC Davis’s School of Engineering but chose Oberlin instead. He wants a Liberal Arts education at a small but first-class school where he can also play tennis and piano, and get to know all his classmates. I’m impressed with his choices and his balance about the future. It has been wonderful watching him mature and I think his is going to have a fine adulthood.
I listened to him practice before we went to his piano lesson with Chang the next day. He is entering a competition in July which may be the end of it for awhile, as his freshman year will be packed.
The party was the next night in the UCI faculty community center, a perfect party venue where Sam had his Bar Mitzvah 5 years ago.The weather was perfect. It was potluck except for a huge pan of rice which was bought at the Persian Market to go with the curry that Lol and Jen made. A host of side dishes made the meal rich and varied. A DJ played music and the wine flowed freely. The guests were family, friends of Sam’s and friends/colleagues of Lolly and Keith.
Brandon is new to our family gatherings, and we are happily getting to know him. It was his first meeting with Lolly and her family and he was remarkably at ease with the large family gathering he was being introduced to. We four ate out on the patio, talking, enjoying the quiet. Brandon lives in San Diego so they do a weekend shuttle between there and Seattle. Both like their jobs, but Charllie’s is with the Gates Foundation and it outdoes ALL others in employee benefits, so Brandon is looking for work in Seattle.
The photos of family at table were mostly courtesy of Aunt Ellie, Bev’s sister.
AnnMarie and Danny’s son Elliot is now 5. We met two years ago when they camped out in the rain with us in San Clemente. We were fast friends immediately. He dubbed me ‘Santa Barbara’ and remembered both me and my name. His choice of food was fascinating – grapes and watermelon.
The birthday cake came and went speedily and then it was time for the entertainment. Lolly organized a roast for Keith and was the MC; family and colleagues did the roasting. Every speaker hit the mark on various aspects of Keith’s character, each one funnier than the last. His academic friends were especially acute at ribbing his traits, but always with love and gentle humor. Sam, fittingly, ended the proceedings.
And then the lights went out and the music took over and we DANCED.I couldn’t sit and watch, so to everone’s delight I got out and rocked gently, joined by my delighted daughters.
The next family event will be Christmas in Ashland for the Massey clan.