The Love of a Family.

I believe in the love and comfort of family.

The dictionary says that a family is a social unit consisting of parents and their children. They are considered a group, whether dwelling together or not. In the past few years I’ve learned that a family is much more than people, who share the same last name, may look alike, or have similar DNA. They are the people that will stand by you through anything and you can trust them more than anyone else. Even if you have disagreements there is always going to be something to tie you together.

This past year both of my grandparents, who I was extremely close to, passed away. It was a tough time for everyone in our family. They did so much for us and were like a second set of parents who spoiled us. When my family from New York, who I hadn’t seen in a long time, came down for my grandpa’s funeral we all comforted each other and worked together to prepare the funeral. My grandma was there so it was a little bit easier on us. We shared memories that we had of him and even though it was a hard thing to go through we brightened each other up by telling a funny story or just acting crazy. Just a comforting smile from one of my cousins, or aunts and uncles reassured me that everything was going to be okay and we were going to get through it together. It wasn’t until about six months later, when my grandma passed away, that I realized family isn’t just the people you live with or just your parents. It can be a person who treats you like you’re their own when your real family doesn’t. My aunt was standing in the kitchen talking to a close friend of both my grandparents and I over heard her saying how my grandparents were so good to her and they were like the supportive and loving parents she never had. This shows you that just because they don’t have your DNA or they’re only related to you by marriage they are still your family. People kept coming up to me and my family and telling us how much my grandparents had meant to them and how much they bragged and talked about their children and grandchildren to everyone. It made all of us feel special knowing we were loved so much. My whole family was stressed, depressed, and in shock during this time, but when we all came together you could tell how much we loved each other. We turned off the television, put up our phones, turned off the computers, and sat around and had true family time. Just being around people who I knew truly cared and knew exactly what I was going through made everything better. The time shared with my family during this time made me very thankful that I had people like them in my life.