A little something about nothing

Family...just when you think you've got it bad

Without sounding like I am bragging, I must admit that my family is pretty great. Granted we all have our little quirks, all in all we get along and know we can count on each other without question should anything ever happen.

I was thinking of this because last night Mark was in a chatty mood and brought up a story of his childhood/early 20's. His father had left his family when he was 5ish so he didn't really know him except for the stories his mother, sister and brothers had told him. Mark is the baby of the family with a sister 1 1/2 years older and 3 brothers that are from the same mother, but different father and 2 brothers from the same father but different mother. The only one he is close to is his sister and one brother. Of the 3 brothers, one ran away at age 12 and committed suicide when Mark was 18, one is in jail, and the other is the one he talks to. The other two brothers he lost touch with years ago. All the brothers are much older than him.

With that little background I can get back to my story. When Mark was 20 he received a birthday card from his father along with an address and phone number inside the card. This is after years of absolutely no contact...so he thought. He finally called him a few weeks later and they continued to talk every so often without the rest of his family knowing. He confided in his sister that he had been talking to his dad. A couple months later his family decided to have an intervention and during a family dinner they all ganged up on Mark telling him how wrong he was to be in contact with his father. He tried explaining that he was too young to remember all the bad things his father supposedly had done and wanted to learn about him on his own. That did not go over very well. Mark soon found out that his dad was and still is an alcoholic. The last conversation they had, his father was really quiet so Mark asked if everything was okay. His response was, "I don't think I can talk to you while I am sober." Mark was shocked and didn't know what to say, so he told him he would let him go with that tone in his voice hoping his father would continue to talk, but his father said, "okay...bye."

I could tell he was really upset by that and I felt really bad for him. This is where I started thinking just how lucky and thankful I am to have such a supportive family structure. To all my family that reads this...Thank You for always being there and for being YOU...I LOVE YOU!!!