From roots to branches

Who are we? What defines us? 

Is it our genes? Is it the way we were raised? Is it the blood that runs through our veins? Is it our own personality  influenced by the people that surround us and who are not necessarily our blood relatives?

It probably is all of the above. I see in myself characteristics of both my parents. The same in Pia. But I also see myself in Lisa who is not a blood relative. At times she resembles me more than her actual blood family. We probably become the person shaped out of  our roots but completed with the influence of all the people in our life.

My own family was small from the beginning  and has become very small over time . We lost our dad in 1999 and our mom in 2011.  I only have one sister. No aunties (we lost her already in 1983), no uncles, cousins or grandparents. The only ancestral family we had left, was a great aunt, the sister of our maternal grandfather. She would have turned 96 on December 10th. But her little flame started to fade away in the last weeks. She died peacefully in her sleep on December 7th. She was more than a great aunt, just because she was the last one left. She was the only  relative I had known all my life. Longer than my own parents, sister or grandparents. She  had been in my life from the day I  was born until her passing more than 47 years later. Needless to say she has had a big influence on me and partly made me the person I am today. But even more important she was the one with the memories, the stories of our parents and grandparents. With her passing, it feels that we lost our parents and grandparents again. No more stories, no more of her memories she can share with us. She had her own personal tragedies. Unable to marry with the love of her life, she remained single with no children. She lost also a big part of the next generation with the passing of our mum, aunt and their  niece. As her remaining family it fell to us, the second cousins, to arrange her funeral service. Until the end, she did not loose her smile. We hope that on Saturday December 17th when we said our final farewell, we made her smile, wherever she might be...