He is Risen! Easter is the most important religious holiday for Christians. But I did not go to church on Easter. This made me feel momentarily guilty, but on the other hand, my gratitude to my Higher Power was demonstrated differently. Family! Ours is large and boisterous and full of love for each other.

Not everyone is so blessed. It seems to me that gathering those relatives together to celebrate Easter is undoubtedly the right spirit to have. We are all aware that it is unusual these days to have a family celebration of three generations and sometimes four. Though the last of the existing 4th generation just passed on into eternal life,recently, RIP Mary Jane Chisholm. We expect the first of the next (new) generation in May. So once again, there will be a 4th generation at the holidays.

It has been such a lovely spring. Because it began early and then the weather cooled sharply, the flowers have been blooming since February. Now, it is April, and I still have daffodils, flowering trees, and very green grass. Today, it has been pouring rain. But the sun is just peaking through, and everything is shining with a silvery gleam. Ah! As I type, the rain is going. I can see it leaving my back terrace, and the sun is breaking through the clouds. It is magnificent.

On Easter it was changeable as well. There were 27 guests and the temperature was mild so we had put a table of 8 and a table of 4 outside on the terrace. The bar was set up out there, too. Emelio was tending bar and all the family were happy to see him. It brought back happy memories of my mother both in DC and up in Newport R.I. He is always part of our family celebrations. Having his help at parties makes life a lot easier for me and all of us.

As people were standing around admiring the view and having a pre-luncheon cocktail the heavens opened up. Everyone ran towards the doors to the house but a few grabbed the silver, china, glassware and table clothes to have them dry off inside. Then they brought in the tables and set them up inside. It all happened in a flash and with great good humor. Luckily there is a lot of space in that very large room in my wonderful home. The guests were all dressed up and some of them sported Easter bonnets, the colors were festive and bright. We have no little children at family gatherings any more, as the youngest is ten. And he was not with us this year. Tom, at 13 was the youngest there; a teenager! So there was no Easter egg hunt nor were there any Easter baskets. I only dyed a dozen eggs for decoration.

The egg dyeing was accomplished while also making gravy, hollandaise sauce, stuffing for a turkey, mashing potatoes from scratch, and boiling the eggs before coloring them. Saturday tired me out so much I thought I might not enjoy the actual Sunday celebrations. But that proved to be a false worry. I had a marvelous time with my family. Adela and a friend named Janet helped in the kitchen so I was pretty much free to socialize. Watching those young people who are my grandchildren gives me such pleasure! Charley and Julie (my ex-husband and his wife) were among the guests as usual and it was nice for us both to see who all these children have turned out to be. Our own children are mature adults now and we are old!!! How did this all happen?

It seems just a short time ago that I went to my first Easter at the Mathesons. That was down at “Wellington”, Charley’s grandparents home on the Potomac River. it is now the headquarters for the Horticultural Society. It must have impressed me because I never forgot it. And after his grandparents gave up having the parties at Thanksgiving and Easter, my in-laws Pinki and Malcolm Matheson jr took over. They continued this until the year that they died at the ages of 94.

My in-laws began the tradition for me, first my grandparents in law at their beautiful estate Wellington (now the headquarters of the Horticultural Society.) After they retired from having the family gathering, my mother and father in law began having Easter luncheon at their place on the river, Ferry Point. I always knew it was special. But I also felt it was simply “normal”. It was only when I saw it through the eyes of others who were occasional guests that I understood just how special it was. I remember my sisters husband, Al Wilsey, remarking how “other worldly” it was, something out of the past southern tradition, he said. Until I heard him exclaim about the rare quality of such a gathering, I truly missed the significance. We did it at least twice a year, and I guess it did not occur to me that not all families had such a tradition.

Now I am so grateful for the thing my Matheson relatives set in motion. My five children all come if they are in the country and not overseas. As many grandchildren as can come, do so. They all seem to get a big “kick out of it” and they encourage each other to come. There are a lot of cousins now. 17 cousins and many have boyfriends, girlfriends or husbands or wives. So the number constantly expands.

My first great-grandchild is expected in late May. I am excited. It has been a long wait. My grandchildren came fairly fast and as expected. But my grandchildren are a lot later to marry and have babies than I was. My oldest grandson is 34 so I was certainly expecting to have a slew of great-grandchildren by now. It was not to be. Finley and Meghan are not the oldest at all. Yet they are going to be the first parents among my grandchildren. It is such a pleasure to know our genes will go on. This is the point of it all, isn’t it? I have always felt that I was a vessel. I never expected to be famous of create a memorable invention or cure cancer. But I expect that my progeny will do some great things for the world later in life. I have always felt this way and it satisfies me. I have never had a great ambition myself to leave my mark. Having a family has always been my highest goal.

The important thing is to have a family that is mentally healthy enough to become important to mankind in some way. My job has always been to nurture and create a calm and loving environment for my children and their children to develop their own capabilities.

These days, manners and tradition are in short supply. It is very important to keep up traditions of this type which reinforce religious beliefs and keep the family close. So many people are adrift, so many families fragmented, so many traditions forgotten and the country careening towards disaster. We must all cling to our good, kind and Christian traditions in this world which seems not to appreciate them. They are what built this country and we must not forget that. Don’t let others forget it either!!!

Copyright©. 2024 Bonnie B. Matheson