My first introduction to E’s family was pretty informal. It was 1980 and they were having dinner in their kitchen when he and I walked in the back door of the family home unannounced. He was picking up some paperwork he needed for his fantasy hockey league meeting.. It was a Monday night and we had been dating a week. He is the eldest of four siblings. I remember seeing his Mom and  three sibs looking up at me from the table. His youngest sister was sixteen (?) at the time.

As she and her husband of twenty-eight years sat at our kitchen table last night it occurred to me that I lucked out. Not only did E’s Dad and second wife embrace me into the family but his Mom and siblings did too. I am sure it wasn’t easy. I was kind of a shock to their system. E’s immediate family are all quiet, soft-spoken, calm and methodical. I am anything but all of those things. His Mom’s Mom never quite “got” me and cried when E said he was going to marry me..But everyone else has been terrific.

The unexpected benefit of living here full-time has been the improved connection with the siblings and their families. As time went on it had been rare when we saw his family outside of the annual Christmas celebration on Boxing Day. When they come to the family home on the island we are usually able to find a chance to get together. E and I  try not to intrude but they usually make time for a visit or two if they aren’t busy with their own visitors.

I am trying to empty the freezer of the all of the meat I had stored for the winter in case we were stranded here. (we weren’t) It seemed like a good time to cook the last of the island lamb. (lamb)

E deboned it in the morning, wrapped it with string, marinated it and then put it on the rotisserie. It weighed a little more than five pounds once the bones were tossed. Lots of food for the six who were here and I imagine could have easily fed eight.  The dinner was delicious, the lamb tender. We were very happy with our first lamb purchase from the island farm. E’s sister had also bought a half a lamb and intends on getting another … It is best if I just don’t think about where my dinner came from.                     

Not sure if E’s family accepted me because I wasn’t so bad after all or because I was obviously so darned fond of their big brother. But I am sure his Grandmother would have come around if she had been able to live another ten or twenty years. Stranger things have happened, I ate

a baby lamb….