This past Saturday and Sunday were spent with family in Wisconsin whom we hadn’t seen for quite a while.  The occasion for the visit was the marriage of one of Michele’s cousins.  It was particularly nice to visit a bit with Michele’s paternal grandma, whom I admire and respect.  She, like so many unfortunate others, is a survivor of tremendous spousal abuse.  She remains unbowed by that, with her good outlook on life, and her humor, definitely intact.  Visiting the small town where my father-in-law grew up is like stepping back in time and into a completely different world.  And I don’t mean that necessarily in a negative sense.  The wedding itself was novel for me because it was the first time I had attended a Roman Catholic ceremony and frankly, most of the time I had difficulty following the service and at times found myself standing when I should be sitting, and sitting when I should be standing.

That evening, we attended the wedding reception at a nearby bar/supper club.  If you don’t know what that is, you haven’t been to Wisconsin.  The number of guests who participated in the family style, homecooked meal was enormous.  I think at least 200 people were there.  At first we were entertained by a polka band.  One of Michele’s uncles used to have a polka band of his own and he enjoyed playing and singing with the group for a while.  There was a lot of dancing and general revelry.  One of the funnier things that was that our shy, reserved little girl, Brinley, turned out to be a dancing demon.  She usually is quite reserved around people she doesn’t know.  She is even known to run and hide when someone comes to the door of our house.  Yet during the wedding reception, she had a tremendous amount of fun prancing around the dance floor, dancing with her older cousins.  I think she danced for two hours straight!  Cohen danced for a bit, too.  Most of us just sat and watched and chatted.  Another of Michele’s uncles is one of the funniest people I know and he kept me in stitches with his pithy remarks on the various guests.

Sunday morning and afternoon we spent at Michele’s grandma’s house, visiting with the extended family.  Most of the time, we just sat outside in the garage and driveway, eating, talking, or just sitting there watching the younger children run around and play.  It was cooler outside than inside, anyway.  Most homes up there don’t have air conditioning.  I was able to visit a little bit with Michele’s great aunt Grace.  Like Michele’s grandma, Aunt Grace had had a very hard life, yet she was peaceful and upbeat.  She told me, more than once, that when she had her latest checkup, her doctor (himself no spring chicken at 70 years of age) said she was in better health than him!

There were a lot of houseplants in Grandma J.’s house and outside on the driveway, more than I ever remembered before.  Turns out they belonged to Uncle Tim, and he wanted to get rid of as many of them as possible because he didn’t have room for them any more.  It was like having Christmas in September for me!  We came home with three different orchids, two clivia miniata (kaffir lily) plants, a firecracker plant, and many more.  I have never owned orchids or clivia before and both kinds of plants are usually quite expensive.  I was pretty thrilled to get them.

We arrived back home late Sunday night, all tired out.  Yesterday was spent just sitting around inside, not doing anything of importance except getting some much-needed rest.