Ruth

I've never had much of an extended family. This isn't because I don't have relatives; rather, it's because the older generations don't seem to get along very well. My grandmother lives literally a minute away from us, but we have very little contact with my mom's brother and his family these days, and my dad has no family to speak of.

I've always sort of wanted more family members. There's a bond there that's important to me, and yet it's difficult to maintain contact when there's so much bad blood. So I was extremely pleased when my mom hatched a plan to surprise my grandmother with a visit from her sister, who she hadn't seen in decades.

The plan worked perfectly. My Great Aunt Ruth surprised my nana, who was, in her own words, overwhelmed by the experience. Moreover, Ruth, a Mormon living in Utah, will be spending three days in town, and is staying at my grandmother's house. To accommodate her, we moved one of our beds to her place; the result is the picture above.

The experience of interacting with another family member, and hearing all of the stories of the family -- which are really quite interesting, especially since Aunt Ruth has seven kids -- was a bit overwhelming for me as well. And yet there was an undercurrent of uncomfortableness. Ruth and my grandmother clearly did not care for each other as children, and there were moments when the passive aggressiveness on display really got to me.

More than anything, it reminded me of my relationship with my brothers, my brother Ryan especially. We've always had a contentious relationship, and I wonder if we'll stay in contact as we grow apart and leave home. Will it take the will of other family to bring us together again? Will we exchange pleasantries as we relive all the times we hurt each other in our youth? Will we part more enemies than friends? I don't know. I hope not. But I see a bit of Ruth in my future, and maybe that means our relationship will just continue to deteriorate.

Or maybe it means I'll be a Mormon in 50 years.