Seewer Love

The day before my 20th high school reunion (yeah, I'll get to that later!) I arranged to visit my Aunt Sharon and my cousin Lane. I brought my mom along, too. (Far right.)

Aunt Sharon (left, above) is my dad's only sibling, and Lane (in the middle next to me) is her only child. So, Lane and I grew up the only children in our families - and the only two grandchildren on the Seewer side. That worked in our favor - especially in regard to Grandma Nancy, who gave us loads and loads and loads of love and attention.

In a period of three years, back in the early 90s, my Aunt Sharon lost her brother (my dad, to colon cancer), her mother (to heartbreak and old age) and her father (to stomach cancer). Those were hard years for her and she did a lot of rallying that about wore her out.

In light of that, I can't tell you how great it was too hook up with her and have SO MUCH FUN. She's got a sharp sense of humor. In fact, she and Mom realized they had a lot to laugh about when they discovered that they each dated my dad's roommate, Rich, back in the day. They've known each other for 40 years now and this was the first they'd confided that in anyone. To have seen their faces when Aunt Sharon pulled out the old picture of old Rich was priceless.


Seeing Lane was really wonderful too. Lane has four boys (the littlest one was taking a nap while this photo was shot) and she leads a busy life, to say the least.

In addition to having four active boys, two of them have Ushers II Syndrome, which is a disease that results in full deafness and blindness by the age of 18. It's very rare and few advancements have been made - although both boys have cochlear implants, which help significantly - so she and her husband Todd have set up the Hear See Hope Foundation in search of a cure. They also have to fight hard to create the optimum learning environment for their kids in school. They've been featured on KING 5, they have a Board of Directors full of movers and shakers, hold huge fundraising events, and are absolutely remarkable parents who work as a powerful and loving team. I can't even tell you how great my admiration for them is.

And Dane and Aubrey had a blast playing with the cousins.

I've been home for a week now, but can't you tell? I'm still feelin' the Seewer Love.