No new running stuff.... but to continue my post-christmas string of post(s);

i still am amazed when i receive a comment from people just searching the internet for stuff. George, thanks for the comment. Keep up the fight, and hopefully more and more survivors will be found. My efforts with local ACS and Relay for Life have taught me so much about support and community. Also, my page-a-day calender today mentions that per capita, americans volunteer more time than any other country.

Movin' on

Saturday was my day with Dad and rest of the family. My Aunt Jane, see previous post, is actually the ex-wife of my Uncle Dave, my dad's brother. They've been divorced about 20 yrs but she has always been part of the family. She helped Mom through her cancer. She never misses a birthday card for the kids and even throws a couple dollars in the card for them.

She has told me it's cause their grandmother can't, so she does. It's small, but means so much cause she's always just done it.

My Uncle Dave was always the uncle i was most familiar with. He's stands about 6'5" and to a small child he was bigger than life, and still is to my inner child. Alas, he's had his share of personal demons to deal with, and seems happy living in Grand Rapids area, but we rarely see each other.

He was able to attend our family Chrismas on Saturday. Unfortunately his wife could not, but he was there. As we all got ready to leave, i wished him a happy Christmas, knowing Christmas Day was still two days away. He replied, it already is, cause he was able to spend it with his family. Fun Guv thought he was choking back a tear as he said it. The moment touched me greatly. Like i typed earlier, we rarely get to see each other.

Anyway, back to Aunt Jane. She took the moment to give Uncle Dave and gift to give to their Granddaughter. It was small token, but on his way back to GR, he was stopping at their sons to visit for Christmas and see his granddaughter. It was a little impromptu, ok very impromtu, so he was unprepared to take anything.

i don't think any smaller gesture could be any more meaningful. An ex-wife to give a gift to an ex-husband to give to their grandchild. Fun Guv and i are both children of divorce, so we've seen the worse-case scenarios.

This wasn't it. This was no pretense. How many ex-es would have used this moment against another ex? How many ex-es would have used this moment as leverage to play favorite?

She didn't, and that's why Aunt Jane is Aunt Jane, and not ex-Aunt Jane. That's family.

Just a couple small moments that made this holiday season different.

More to follow....

thanks again for reading, through my terribly self-indulgent therapy riddled post(s)