Autism & Faith 1989

Who is family? Is it our group of friends? Religious community? Extracurricular activists at school?

Is family important? Are you close to your family? Family to me is important to me because it makes me feel included included in gatherings.

My mom and I spent a week in Florida between Christmas and New Years. We were staying with her brother at his Florida winter house. I had never spent time with them outside of family gatherings and it as nice to get away from the Minnesota cold. We were there for a family gathering. My late grandmas’s sister in law the last member of her immediate family turned 90 1/1/2023 had a family gathering. She needs no support with cane, wheelchair, or walker. She also doesn’t need more advanced care at her assisted living facility.

It was nice to see family I have known for years and ones who I met for the first time. My grandma’s sister in law is my great aunt and her husband was the Rev. Dr. Herbert B. Anderson who was senior pastor at The Brick Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in New York City for 22 years. He was the nicest guy you would have ever met.

He would have this saying about Presbyterians. He would call church members that don’t attend Hatched, Matched and dispatched. That is they are born, married and barried.

This is what family look like for my mom and I.