It’s been an eventful few days of February already, and that’s not because of Groundhog Day, the Superbowl, or the end of an I.U. basketball losing skid. This is not the stuff that matters! It’s family that really matters and a lot has happened of late.

My nine month old granddaughter is crawling, cooing, waving, and eating real food. She’s a doll, and I regret not being closer to my son and his family. We are 3,125 miles apart! It’s also not an easy flight with the 3 hour time difference, so I get to see them only rarely. On the other age extreme, we spend most of our family travel budget and my wife’s vacation time on quarterly trips back to Indiana. Her 97-year old mother is now requiring round-the-clock nursing, while most of her life savings are going to this expense. She could soon run out of money. This is something that every retiree and family member needs to worry about.

My wife’s youngest daughter sent us her new apartment address a few days ago. She and her anticipated fiance are moving from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, California so they’ll at least be in the same time zone as we are. This should allow us to see them more often. Her sister, the only relative who lives nearby in Portland, just showed us her new engagement ring yesterday, and will start a new job soon. Between my wife’s sister’s daughter, who got engaged over the holidays and my wife’s two great girls, we’re anticipating three wedding in the near future. It’s hard to keep up with all these family matters.

As you can see, there’s good news and bad news when it comes to my family matters. My only sister and I have already dealt with the passing of our parents. She bore most of this grave responsibility. We met for lunch over the holidays, but I didn’t get to see her two busy kids, my nephew and niece, as we too remain separated by 2,216 miles and only limited visiting time when we’re back in Indiana. She did bring along one of her five granddaughters. The best I can do is call her every Monday and keep track of the kids on Facebook. It would have been our mom’s 98th birthday today, born one day after dad. Our family matters are now simply about memories, and trying to get together whenever we can.