Sweet Tea and Bar-B-Q

Family time comes in all different shapes and sizes. The usual layout for my family time consists of two parents, one brother, nine cousins, one 2nd cousin, ten aunts and uncles, two grandparents and up until Saturday at noon, one great-Grandmire. The face of those family gatherings is more chaotic than relaxing. Papaw smokes the Bar-B-Q, and Michael Wayne brews the sweet tea that is so sweet it makes your teeth hurt. It's what a picture of a Texas family should look like. 

On Saturday, our number went from 25 to 24 when we lost our Great-Grandmire. She has always been "Great-Grandmire" to me and my cousins, "Grandmire" to my mom, dad, aunts and uncles, "mom" to my Grandmire, "Boots" to close friends, and "Louise" to others (Come to think of it, I have never actually heard anyone call Great-Grandmire, Louise in all my 21 years). She might have had many names but she had one huge heart that had more love than she had time to give it. 

So this family gathering, though more solemn than others, will be focused on the woman who started this chaos just shy of a century ago. And there will be Bar-B-Q and Sweet Tea; everyone will laugh and some will cry, but "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!"