This week, we are enjoying a long week-end due to a provincial holiday – Family Day. It was created in 2007 to encourage families to spend the day enjoying activities together. While it is important to share this day with our children, I think it is also important to remember our extended family. Brothers and sisters are a huge part of who we are and too often we taken them for granted, and we forget to tell them what they mean to us.
Sometimes life goes along without incident and we tend to take our good fortune for granted. We are six siblings in my family and we have been fortunate in that we still have each other, and have not yet had to deal with the death of a brother or sister. I realize now that I have taken this for granted and trusted that we would all be together for a long time to come.
That changed last year while I was away on holidays. I received a text that my oldest brother had been hospitalized and was being scheduled for emergency quadruple by-pass surgery. It finally struck me, all those thousands of miles away, that there won’t always be the six of us. And while we keep in contact and visit back and forth, I have rarely told my siblings the important things I want them to know. Do they know how much they are loved? Do my older brothers and sister know how I looked up to them when I was growing up? I have never told any of my siblings what an impact they have had on my life or how much I enjoy being with them.
My husband also comes from a family of six siblings. We spent last week-end at his brother-in-law’s hospital bedside as he battles cancer. As relatives came in and out to visit, all of us knowing it could be our last conversation with him, I realized that we have neglected to make sure my husband’s extended family knows how important they are to us. As his sister introduced my husband to visitors as her “baby brother”, I was reminded of how each of his siblings helped him through-out his childhood. Each of them contributed a great deal into making him the man he turned out to be. Their love and concern for him was shown many times. I wonder if they know how appreciated their actions were and how cherished they are?
I’ve come to realize how important it is to tell loved ones how you feel. I am fortunate to have people in my life who I love. I am blessed that I still have the opportunity to tell them. I will no longer take that for granted.
This Family Day, enjoy time with your loved ones. Ensuring that loved ones know how you feel... it's a good thing!
Sometimes life goes along without incident and we tend to take our good fortune for granted. We are six siblings in my family and we have been fortunate in that we still have each other, and have not yet had to deal with the death of a brother or sister. I realize now that I have taken this for granted and trusted that we would all be together for a long time to come.
That changed last year while I was away on holidays. I received a text that my oldest brother had been hospitalized and was being scheduled for emergency quadruple by-pass surgery. It finally struck me, all those thousands of miles away, that there won’t always be the six of us. And while we keep in contact and visit back and forth, I have rarely told my siblings the important things I want them to know. Do they know how much they are loved? Do my older brothers and sister know how I looked up to them when I was growing up? I have never told any of my siblings what an impact they have had on my life or how much I enjoy being with them.
My husband also comes from a family of six siblings. We spent last week-end at his brother-in-law’s hospital bedside as he battles cancer. As relatives came in and out to visit, all of us knowing it could be our last conversation with him, I realized that we have neglected to make sure my husband’s extended family knows how important they are to us. As his sister introduced my husband to visitors as her “baby brother”, I was reminded of how each of his siblings helped him through-out his childhood. Each of them contributed a great deal into making him the man he turned out to be. Their love and concern for him was shown many times. I wonder if they know how appreciated their actions were and how cherished they are?
I’ve come to realize how important it is to tell loved ones how you feel. I am fortunate to have people in my life who I love. I am blessed that I still have the opportunity to tell them. I will no longer take that for granted.
This Family Day, enjoy time with your loved ones. Ensuring that loved ones know how you feel... it's a good thing!
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