With a Smile on My Face and a Tear in My Eye

With the generation above us no longer, my cousin Larry and my sister Gail had, to me, assumed the roles of patriarch and matriarch of our family. There were, to be sure, plenty of alternatives from among the many children of four Smith sisters and then finally a baby brother. But none to match these two.

All five branches coming together as one every Thanksgiving. Not a gathering. A celebration.

We will number close to 50 tomorrow. Among those, two who have newly arrived and will surely be the centerpieces for the day. But there will be a hole in our middle and in our hearts.

This has been a hard, hard year for me in many regards. Far too much unrelenting hardship and suffering in those I held dear. The loss of my mother in-law, a woman of great dignity and strength, filled me with sadness. But nothing was more painful than the passing of the cousin with whom I shared such a close lifelong bond and later, the death of my sister, who I absolutely adored from my first breath until her last.

Larry was the most understated genius one could imagine. Greatly heralded in his field, you were drawn to him for his absolute modesty, almost, almost hiding his brilliance behind a calm, gentle and generous demeanor.

And Gail. No words do her justice. Hers was a heart as large as the needs of the hundreds upon hundreds who called her friend. Her love was boundless, a generosity of spirit given without request or demand in return. She was, in my eyes, simply without flaw. A lifelong gift I did not deserve.

I have had few in my life who I have been inexorably drawn to. And now I have lost two of them.

I adore Thanksgiving and this year will be no different. I have had the great fortune for the entire length of my many days to be part of a family that I simply love. And I believe that all those who are there tomorrow feel as deeply and fervently as I do about being a part of the magic that is the Smith's.

With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye, I will look around a room filled with noise, overflowing with life and raise a glass to the ones who are no more. In tribute, giving everlasting thanks.