Family Values or Valuing Family?

In these modern times where the idea of family values is more a political stumping point or a buzz word of little real intrinsic value, there was a time when it meant so much more. Instead of saying that family values are important, or that Americans want more family values in their way of life, it should be noted that true family values come from actually placing value on families. This is something that was rooted deep in my mother's psyche. Something that she lived and breathed each day, not something that had to be reminded or legislated.

This is something that I have been learning more and more about her as I spoke to people in the family and to her friends and acquaintances. I always thought I knew what it meant to value your family; what it meant to keep a family together. But even today, my mom is still teaching me.

My family is kind of large, on my mom's side; all Irish Catholics. You know how it is. I was always asking my mom who someone was at a party or how someone else was related. Cousins, nephews, nieces, grand-uncles, etc, etc filled out the family gatherings. Now the job of keeping me up on who's who falls to my sisters, most notably my oldest, who somehow keeps track of it all. Just the other day my dad made reference to someone and I had to call my sister to find out who they were.

When my maternal grandmother was alive, she was always in the kitchen at such events. She brought in her three daughters, mom and my two aunts, to help out. After she passed, my sisters and two oldest female cousins, Linda and Susie, were brought into the kitchen.

"We bring our kids in now," Susie informed me once. "Guess it's a family tradition that keeps getting handed down, from one generation to the next."

Family values. The value of family. Mom taught us not so much in words, but in actions, what family means. It was stuff that she learned from her mom.