Chapter 83) This Is Us Now

It seems that of late I often start these chapters with the annotation that so much has changed, just before apologizing for not writing sooner, and then go on to explaining why.

This is another one of those instances and merely a quick post to get you caught up to where all the many events seemingly happening at once left us.

Our six grandchildren had meanwhile given us no less then 11 great-grandkids. Not a typo. Eleven, ranging from 11 to 2 years old. Gulp.

We all were on good terms with one another, but while we all managed to stay in touch, it just seemed to work better with some than with others, mostly for geographical reasons, and getting all of us together was impossible.
We had tried and tried, but the distance, timing, work schedules and sheer amount of family members made it a Herculean task. All in all, we were well over 40 people directly related counting the in-laws and other relevant people (for example we would have to invite Caleb and his wife and child …and if we did that, also Lilith – urgh – her husband and two kids, the Flynns, the Reeds, Chase, who would bring his wife and now adult son, and so on and so forth …). Yeah. So, it wouldn’t happen. Not on such a huge scale, but we always met in smaller batches. Especially since Blaine and I stayed home a lot more now and our home was at capacity with 8 – 10 people. Oh, our lovely little home, always open for family visits. Most of our friends had died by now. Well, actually, all of them except Caleb, for very obvious reasons.

But back to the actual catching you up.
Blaine and I were closest to our son Brendan, his wife Natalie and their two adult sons, plus spouses and children, mostly because Brendan and Natty had always lived near us, so we saw each other more, which continued with their children and their kids now, even after one of the grandsons had moved to Del Sol Valley, but was wealthy enough to be able to afford weekend visits whenever the mood struck and schedules allowed it.

I’ll start with the oldest grandkids, Anastasia’s twins Collin and Claire, both 36 now. Yeah, I have 36 year old grandchildren. Should mention Blaine is 87 now, I am 86. Ana is now 61, Brendan 56.
I know, oh believe me, I know!

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Collin and his wife Kerri had two kids now. A boy, Ian (5), and a few years later they added a little girl, Marnie, who was now almost 2, and they still lived in his beautiful large home on the cliffs in Brindleton Bay.

From the sounds of it they were now done with kids. But that young man was happier than I had ever seen him. The strict, conservative ‘keeping-up-the-appearance’ raising he and his sister had to endure was his foundation to know what a child does not need. Ian and Marnie were incredible sweet and wholesome.

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Collin’s twin sister Claire also lived in Brindleton Bay, but closer to downtown.

She had another baby, a little boy, Lucas (2 1/2), with her second husband Jace. Her sons from her previous marriage, fraternal twins Grant (blond) and Graham were 11 now. Those boys could not have asked for a better step-father, who was more of a father than their biological one had been before his untimely death. They had always called Jace ‘daddy’ and when asked, never mentioned they weren’t blood-related. Sometimes fate seems cruel but knows best in the end. That family of five was happy as can be and like her twin brother, this concluded their family planning.

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Our next oldest grandson Declan (32) and Rory (31) had twin boys, Jordan and Jamie (3), while twins ran in our family, they were the first identical ones. Darling, those babies and just like before, I always had the strong bond with Declan, and now with his children.
They still lived with Brendan and Natalie in their childhood home on the Windenburg isle, so just minutes away from us, even if you missed the ferry.

Plus, aside from Blaine’s eye color, they looked a lot more like my genes. Declan did what his father had done after Natalie was pregnant with Everett, and gotten a vasectomy. Rory had meanwhile had her surgery too. No more great-grandkids from them either. Once the boys were old enough, they were going to take them to Mt. Komorebi and Sulani. Declan and Rory were very outdoorsy, loved to travel, and took the twins to Granite Falls a lot.

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Our grandson Everett (30) and his wife Maeve (27) had a son, which they unanimously named Blaine Cameron II (the second) in honor of my Blaine.
Little Blaine was only a few months older than Jordan and Jonas, so also 3.
Oddly, my Blaine melted into a puddle of goo when he found out the baby was named after him, and when meeting his great-grandson namesake. Both Blaines were instantly enamored with each other.
They lived far away, in their mansion in Del Sol Valley, but came to visit often since traveling was hard on Blaine and me now.

Everett still vehemently resisted Maeve’s request that he, like his brother, would get snipped. He just didn’t want to and she didn’t want any more kids, after having had the roughest time getting back into the shape she felt was needed to avoid rude comments by media and the public.
Not sure what to tell you here. I am not holding my breath on another one from them, because Everett may be loud and obnoxious at times, but Maeve usually has the final say-so.

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Finn (24) had married his high school sweetheart Jana (24), and they had a little boy, Kai.
One kid was all they wanted so they were done. Kai was also almost 3 now and the whole family lived in the huge mansion in Del Sol Valley with Anastasia and Riordan.

Finn had followed in Ana’s footsteps and taken over her very successful law practice, she was sort of unofficially retired now, which is basically code for independently wealthy.
Ana did the best she could to remain looking as young as possible, since Riordan had stopped aging long ago, but her 61 years were starting to catch up with her. She and Riordan barely went anywhere that wasn’t family-related and they were still quietly happy.

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Finn’s twin sister Fiona (24) was a famous actress now, had bought her own mansion down the street from her parents and Finn for herself and her twins Heath and Haley when they were still infants, they were 6 now.

The kids’ father Keegan Braxton lived there too now, they had made up over several years by building a friendship first, then inching closer, slowly. I was so proud of that girl, but even still at arm-length away, Keegan had done a lot of growing up from the dead-beat boyfriend and father he had been for years, he tried very hard to gain Fi’s trust again and eventually graduated to boyfriend, then fiancé and now husband. It was always hard to gauge if you didn’t spend significant amounts of time with people, but they seemed happy and solid, esp. for a couple in the movie business. He was an actor too.

So while personal visits were rare, we saw them quiet frequently on a long running weekly soap opera and in several movies. They still only had their twins from the teen pregnancy, and Fiona had said that those two would be it for her.

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More the next time.