Arlene Park Arnold/Sister Get-Together -Tradition

I talked with a man last week who just returned from visiting his daughter in England.  He said they have seen her FOUR TIMES IN THIRTEEN YEARS!  I was stunned.  Sometimes I forget how blessed I am.  In a world where families are scattered, and some try to avoid each other, it is a blessing that our family gets together often.  My daughters try to get together at least once a week.  It is a tradition my mother and her sisters faithfully kept.  They got together every week for over 45 years.  They gathered at their mother's home, did her hair, and had a quilt on or brought different projects to work on.  Grandma had never learned to drive a car, so her Hibbard Idaho home was where they always met.   After Grandma Park passed away, their brother said his sisters changed from Grandma's house to going to a "feed lot".  This was a funny farm term he used for the "formerly heifers, now old cows" eating at a buffet in Rexburg.  Their brother Elmer, the youngest of the brood  who had attached this phrase to them,  was invited if he wanted.   After Belva, the oldest sister had a stroke, they continued to get together, but in her room at the care facility.   When she passed away, it was changed to garage sales on Saturday mornings, followed by eating out.  I remember one time, I was visiting mother for a few days.  Mother invited me to go along on the sister's garage sale Saturday.  Aunt Wanda, Ruth, and Mother went to a ton of garage sales that morning.  As Mother and I were on our way home, I told her how amazed I was that they had been able to go to that many sales in one morning.  I can still her slow Park drawl in her direct-forth-right manner say, "Well, we usually go to a lot more.  Having you along really slowed us down."  I pray my daughters and then their daughters continue this precious remarkable tradition.