Family Reunion

The Lore Family reunion is not a grand celebration of a brilliantly famous and successful clan.  It is a gritty gathering of survivors and over-comers.

It is a story of small-town life in rural America with most of its pitfalls and a good number of its charms.  It is a story of some who have left to find their way in more promising places, to escape the burdensome intimacy of knowing nearly every face you see in the store, the gas station, the doctor's office.  It is a story of others who stayed and planted roots deep in their home town.

It is a gathering made possible by the determination of a husband and wife, Floyd and Julia, to wrest a living out of the rugged Wyoming prairie using little more than their own two hands.  Who had eight children in the depression-era 1920's and 1930's.  Who worked hard and lived with quiet dignity until a tragic accident abruptly and prematurely ended Floyd's life in 1946.

It is a gathering of those who remain of the eight children to reminisce, to be thankful, to simply be.

It is a gathering of the next generation, who knew little of Grandpa Lore, but much of Grandma Lore.

I am of that third generation.  As I spent time this year with cousins and aunts and uncles, I realized how little I know about them and, for the first time, how important it was to me to learn more.