For the last ten or so years, my family (my kids, my wife, my mom, my dad, my sister and aunts, uncles and cousins) have been going to this little island on the border of North Carolina and South Carolina; Sunset Beach. A few years ago there was a rip within the family. It was no small rip, but it could have been mended. Instead it grew, till the fabric was severed.
We continued to go, but the distance grew. First my dad stopped coming. Then my sister. The rip was palpable; it became a weight. Now there is an inevitable sunset on the blurring horizon. The tradition will be coming to an end.
Last visit, my mother could do nothing but make lists and forget the list and ask the same question over and over again. We had to babysit her constantly (to eat her food, to take her medicines). This year my mom will not be able to come, as her health and mind deteriorate rapidly.
I can curse the rip. The fact that no one tried to mend it. Each pulling and ripping it larger. This is life. This is what we often do to one another. It's hard not to feel defeated. Depressed. Angry. Frustrated. I want to blame everyone. Someone. Something. God. Life. Myself. But it is done. From one fabric now many. It's time to sew ourselves into a new quilt of tradition.