Our well crafted plans for a family reunion played out differently than expected. In spite of lengthy deliberation by fourteen people, circumstances changed and we had to adapt with them. Of the five adult kids and their significant others who had originally hoped to join us, just one came. 

 

These are hard decisions. Predicting the risks inherent in a pandemic is tricky business, and unlike a game show no bells go off if you guess correctly. I wish with all my might that they did. 

 

In the absence of presence, though, we got creative. I say we but really it was them. Our kids hosted a bunch of zooms, one to present the twins with their graduation gifts, which were generous, and another to celebrate our fortieth anniversary. Lukas had prepared a slide show including the half dozen snap shots of our wedding, and invited John and me to tell stories about the day. They even had one enlarged to put on our wall. It was sweet to reminisce, and there was no visual evidence to contradict my memories. Then there were trivia games. People contributed questions about Odhner history, and we laughed a lot. We watched Hamilton as a group, because that is possible, and talked about it afterward. Lukas crafted a two hour stream of old photos, and kids at either end of the family spectrum got a better view of what it was like. You may be shocked to learn that our parenting evolved over thirty nine years. 

 

Hosanna decided to stay longer than a week since remote work happens as easily in Pennsylvania as Boston. I got to eavesdrop on her meetings with international colleagues, and gathered a sense of what it is she does. Then in her time off she gave generously to our family... clearing weeds from the yard, doing a sewing project with her sisters, taking sibs out for coffee, and giving her aging parents their annual financial advice. She helped the twins muscle through the process of getting visas including a trip to the Spanish consulate in NYC, and pin down housing for college in Europe. I am awash with gratitude. 

 

In retrospect it was unlike what I anticipated. But perhaps my perspective can sometimes be limited. John drove her to the train station to head back to her apartment. I have a feeling there will be the sound of bells ringing. 

 

 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."- Isaiah 55