Shake down the thunder from the sky

Although my weekend ended pretty terribly as you can tell by my previous post, the rest of the weekend was wonderful in a bittersweet kind of way. Friday, visiting Lauren and going to Keeneland, meeting her friends, seeing her house...it just made me miss her more. We drove down to the monastery that night, after the party.

My great uncle Tom (Brother Alban) was a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani. He went into it when he was 15 and spent the next 56 years there. I am not sure when the family reunions began. Every year my mom's side of the family, Br. Alban's family would get together in Kentucky. You would think a monastery would be a pretty lame family reunion but I'm not sure a family like mine could have lame family reunions. As kids we would go hiking and find fossils, hear the adults drinking, laughing, arguing and telling stories until the wee hours of the morning. The days filled with games, catching up with family, playing with the newest and oldest cousins, eating and drinking. Freshman year of college I found myself in the adult circle, making the obligatory stop at the Sherwood bar and screaming at the top of my lungs at a TV blaring the OSU vs Wisconsin game to four Badgers in a sea of my mom's Buckeye family.

With Brother Alban's passing a few weeks ago, we don't know if the tradition will continue. On Saturday we had a baptism for the newest member of the family (Ironically I stood in for the absent Godmother). When the key member of a tradition is no longer around, the tradition can seem awkward or lose focus. Standing in front of my family at the baptism, then later sitting that night around the fire, telling stories, I couldn't imagine not having everyone come together each year. I didn't go every year, but just knowing it was always happening...there was a comfort to it just like there was a comfort in the fact that even though Brother Alban battled with MS for over 30 years, he never lost the twinkle in his eye or his sense of humor. We should all be so lucky.

I would say Rest in Peace, but I don't think Brother Alban would be happy sitting around doing nothing...so,

May he Rest in Love