During my early years, I remember family “get-togethers” of the Jones Family every Christmas and many Easters. Mother was the second oldest of seven children and most of them would be there at Momma and Daddy Jones’ house for Christmas. Those family get-togethers were important to my mother and my daddy. We had our family time at home either before or after the Jones Christmas.
When Maurice and Charlotte got married and then Joyce and Ted got married not too long later, it was important to Mom and Dad to have everyone at their house for Christmas, Easter, and other family get-togethers. That continued after Eva and I got married and then JoAnn and Lynn got married a few months later. The family was always important to Mom and Dad. As each of our families added children, we followed the previous model of Christmas at home and Christmas with our parents. A tradition that we continued because we were part of a bigger family and Mom and Dad enjoyed having the entire family together.
During the years that Maurice, Charlotte, Kim, and Pam lived in El Paso, those family get-togethers were different when they were not in town. With the passing of Dad in 1978, those family get-togethers began to change, at least for me and my family. Over the years, as our children got older and went off to college, scheduling a Ray Family get-together was like “I see you at the next funeral.”
The last few years, I have had so many memories of the early years that I wanted to share with those grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mom and Dad. Stories about Mom and Dad, and about my brother and sisters. About events that helped shape the people they became. To understand how hard they worked to make a place for their family and to provide opportunities for their children to have a better life.
Eva and I were happy that many family members were able to come to our 50th Anniversary several years ago, but we had wanted to have a get-together for the “Ray Family” before we lost Maurice, Charlotte, and Joyce. When we lost Eva, I wanted to share what she had meant to me, and I tried to do that. That began my efforts to share stories of the earlier years, including those about the Ray Family members.
Those memories led to JoAnn and me wanting to have a Ray Family Reunion while we could still be involved and share our great memories of years gone by. There is never a perfect time when all the many families are available on the same day. We knew that would always be the case, no matter how far into the future we tried to schedule one. Truth is, we set a priority for those things we want to do over the things we really are not that interested in doing.
I am so glad that we have had a family get-together and had many family members here to talk about memories, look at old pictures, and share a meal together. We all had a fun time and shared some laughs and good company.
God willing, JoAnn and I will plan to have another one in the future with the hopes that more will be able to attend then.
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