Densmore Family Reunion

Outside of weekend day trips to my parents house, phone calls from my sister, surprise visits from my grandparents, trips to visit my NY side of the family, poor ‘ol Mike can’t seem to escape our one constant weekend theme: My family.

This Saturday wasn’t any different. Welcome, come one come all to the yearly Densmore Family Reunion!!!

(The Densmores being on my maternal grandfather’s side of the family.)

This yearly gathering of Great Aunts and 3^rd cousins twice removed is a family event that I struggle attending. Outside of my immediate family (that I see almost every weekend anyway) I don’t know any of these people, needless to say that I haven’t attended a family reunion in approximately 7 years.

My grandfather’s cousin and his wife (Ira and Lavonna) are the ones who usually host this gathering and two weeks prior to the reunion Lavonna passed away from breast cancer. Lavonna was a wonderful woman with a powerful energy and loving spirit and the news of her passing caught us all a little bit off guard.

It was decided that the reunion would go on in Lavonna’s memory so Mike, the boys and I once again loaded up the Toyota, and cooler, and hit the road to southern Vermont. Our trip takes us south of Rutland and from where we live there is no direct route that we can take to get there. We have to drive East into Burlington (45 mins), then head South on Rt 7 to Vergennes (30 mins), then take a network of state highways further south for another hour, then hook up to some po-dunk dirt back road until we get to the camp. It’s a long trip that makes the adults in the car want to repeat, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Thankfully we were following my mother otherwise I think that we would have found ourselves caught off guard on a dead-end dirt road where we would have flashbacks of the movie ‘Deliverance’.

The turn out for this year’s reunion was surprisingly nice. There were only 5 people that I didn’t know but by the end of the day we all were introduced and enjoying each other’s company. My mother brought along 2 kayak’s and their new puppy, Lily. My sister brought her 3 dogs, her big’ol pregnant belly and an appetite that could challenge any grown man there. My grandfather came solo as my grandmother isn’t as up to traveling as she used to be. Ira and Lavonna’s 3 grown children were there with their families, along with a few cousins and one Great Aunt that looked ancient when I was young.

Thankfully the rain held off and as a family we were able to share a few laughs, chase a herd of dogs, reintroduce ourselves to each other, enjoy a meal, and say farewell to a woman who touched almost everyone in attendance.