House clean: check.
Laundry done: check.
House and Wonder dog sitter organised: check.
Wonder dog bathed: check.
Food sorted: mostly check.
Bags packed: not yet, but soon.
Okay I think I’m almost ready for a long weekend holiday with the family. You heard right: the Old Boy, the kids, the grandkids and I are all off  on a holiday in an old (no longer in production) copper-mining town near the sea.  The only ones left behind will be the dogs, cats and bird. Some of us will feel guilty about leaving them behind and the rest couldn’t care less.

An old mining town? you say. That’s a strange choice. That’s where you’d be wrong. It has everything our family likes. There are old ruins; an abandoned mine (that’s for the boys); a lovely white sand beach; an old-fashioned sweet shop (not just for the children); antiques and jewellery shops (for the girls); a bakery that sells Cornish pasties; a pub for Saturday night dinner, and a house big enough to take us all. Should be fun, as long as the Old Boy’s snoring doesn’t keep us awake. The plan is to make some good, happy, relaxed family memories together.

Today, as I prepare to have fun with my children and grandchildren, I’m thinking of my sister and her children in Darwin, as they attend the funeral of her son and their brother, my nephew. They, too, are staying together in a house big enough for all of them. One nephew and his wife have flown back from San Francisco; one nephew and his sister have flown up from Melbourne and the other nephew, the bereaved mother and another one of my sisters have flown up from Adelaide. They are finding comfort and strength by being family together.

I am the youngest of four daughters. I used to share a bedroom with the bereaved mother (who is 5 years older than me). She teased me mercilessly. But one day, when I was about 7 or 8 years old, someone had teased me all day and was still doing it as I was walking home in tears. Suddenly, this sister came racing up on her bicycle and sent the kid packing. I stared at her in shock. Why had she come to my rescue? You’re my sister, she said. No one gets to tease you except me. She then walked me home, which was another shock as she usually didn’t want to be seen dead with me. That’s family.

I told my children, when they were teenagers, that friends may come and go, but your family will always be there. We might not always get on. We have differing political, religious and sporting allegiances. BUT, when it comes to the crunch, none of that matters. We’re family.

I’ve been blessed to grow up in such a family. If the family you grew up with was not a happy one, then I hope you can make a new one that resonates with love, encouragement, respect, hope and faith. The world is in desperate need of more of that.