Ithaca Reunion, Summer of 2023
While this blog is intended to celebrate our post-retirement adventures, the events we most look forward to are the annual family gatherings, of which there are three. We drive to the Catskill hamlet of Hankins, New York each Memorial Day (Memorial Day Gathering on the Delaware River) for a relatively small family gathering that includes canoeing, hiking, baseball and an evening meal cooked over an open fire. Our hosts are Jani’s cousins, Sarah and Jane, and the highlight, besides catching up with family, is the celebration of Sarah’s dad’s birthday. Uncle Mark was 93 this past May.
Late in July we drive to Ithaca for the next family get together which has a completely different feel. It’s is midsummer and Jani’s brother Kent and his wife Francesca play host to a weekend on the water on Cayuga Lake, NY. Many more family participate, coming from as far away as Sweden, Louisiana and Indiana. As always, everybody pitches in to make it a fun time. Also, there are usually more kids in attendance, and their youthful exuberance and energy evoke feelings of being at summer camp. Gracious, as always, Kent and Francesca manage to provide housing for everyone as well as canoes, paddle boards, a sailboat and a raft/trampoline that becomes a great destination for sunning , swimming and conversation. On Saturday night, Uncle Kent tows a drum full of scrap wood out into the lake and lights it. As the sun sets on the water, and the weekend, we all enjoy the special atmosphere this helps create.
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We have been going to the summer reunion for more than a dozen years and each time feels slightly different, if for no other reason than the conversations have changed as each generation has evolved. There is more medical talk among the older family members (siblings); more “mom-talk” among the “middle-aged” cousins with young children; more school talk among the younger cousins who are just clearing high school; more sports talk among the school age cousins. These topics neatly overlap as we remember what we have experienced ourselves and contemplate where we are heading.
Then, of course, there are rafts of old family stories that are lovingly repeated – often exaggerated – each year. They are the gold standard.
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Two days after leaving the Ithaca reunion Gary could not bear weight on his right leg and required crutches and medical attention. We had to cancel a planned dive trip to Belize, in the Caribbean, and curtail most of our fall trail work. The medical path resulted in a second spinal surgery in December, a two-level spinal fusion, and another operation when one of his incisions became infected. This put a damper on our adventures until the Spring.
