My Family

Describe a family member.

Daily writing prompt

This one is difficult. My gut instinct is to respond that each member of my family is brilliant and kind and loving and amazing. It’s going to end up like that, but maybe not quiet so explicitly?

Let’s start with my wife, Jen. I have never met anyone so capable. Her brain is breathtaking. Her intelligence is staggering. Professionally speaking she can do anything. Managing people or architecting software systems or implementing code solutions. All of it. I can’t tell you how many of her co-workers have told me how she continuously amazes them. She is also kind and sweet and supportive and loving. I have had a few difficult situations in my life that I do not believe I could have handled without having her with me to help me through them. All of my life I imagined what the perfect life-partner would be like. Jen is it. She checks all of my life-partner boxes. Before I met her I was convinced that I would never get married and never have a family. Then she came along and changed my entire outlook on life. She is a shockwave to my system that changed every aspect of my life for the better. She is the single most amazing human being I have ever encountered and I love her with every fiber of my being. I cannot believe she found me worthy of sharing her life with. I don’t know what I did to be so lucky. I don’t think I will ever figure it out, but I will eternally be thankful I did whatever it was I did.

Next up is my step son, Harry. He’s a 20 year old junior at the University of Vermont. He is the single most generous person I have ever met. His selflessness borders on astounding. He has also had to deal with some serious health issues. Years ago, when he was still a little guy, he developed type one diabetes. His body stopped producing insulin for some reason and he got incredibly sick very quickly. We almost lost him. His response after recovering from the initial issues has been nothing short of incredible. He took up the challenge of managing his disease and has kept himself healthy ever since. I try to imagine myself in his shoes and I just can’t see myself handling my blood sugar as expertly as he has. We had that one horrible hospitalization before we knew what was wrong, but in the nearly 10 years since there has never been even another scare. Sure his blood sugar spikes and dips from time to time, but he reacts to it swiftly and accurately and always brings it into line in short order. Even the medical staff who oversee his diabetes management are a little in awe of how well he has done. He is an inspiration as well as being a kind and loving step son. He is amazing.

Finally there is my step daughter, Bellana. She is a 22 year old recent college graduate. She is working in medical research these days, but graduate school is in her future. She is working toward getting published in a medical journal and is hoping to achieve that before starting a Masters program. I expect there will be a PHD in her future at some point, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. To say that Bellana is brilliant is a massive understatement. She is also the most driven person I have ever known. She wanted to be first in her class in high school and she pulled it off. She wanted to graduate from college with honors and she pulled it off. She decides what she wants and she forces her will upon it and makes it happen. It’s amazing to watch. She is also just as kind and loving as can be. Just like her brother and her mother, she is amazing.

On top of all of these things about the three members of my family, they are also hysterically funny. The sense of humor these people have… we spend so much time together laughing. Again I have to ask, what did I do to deserve having these people in my life? What did I do to make them let me stay around? I will never know but I will forever be grateful.

So there you have it. Descriptions of my family members that cover maybe 0.01% of all of the things that I love about them. I have barely scratched the surface, but it’s still enough to give you an idea of why I love them so much.