Family Reunion

After surviving the Covid pandemic, many of us couldn’t wait to reconnect. All 25 families began to plan a multi-day family reunion. Sadly, four family members would not be able to attend because they succumbed to Covid after long battles.

Grandpa Anton, who had recently retired, took the lead and volunteered to spearhead the effort. He promised to make available three options and put them up for a vote among all the families attending the reunion!

At first, this did not go well with Anton’s cousin Isabel. She considered herself the Matriarch of the family and always felt she should oversee all aspects related to the family! However, since the reunion would take place in Anton’s city and she lived one thousand miles away, she agreed that she had to step aside. In return for her support, Anton had to promise to keep her abreast of all his findings as he prepared to give the group a narrow list of choices.

While Anton felt this was not ideal, he conceded to her request to minimize opposition from the group because she was well-respected among family members. Nonetheless, these strong-minded individuals walked away with different interpretations of the arrangement.

The Plan Springs into Action

As the plan evolved, the goal was to bring all 25 families into a single venue on the first day, followed by a catered dinner event on the second day, and a beach day on the last day of the reunion! If the weather failed to cooperate, a visit to a local movie theatre would be substituted.

During the planning process, Anton visited several venues across the city and itemized the pros and cons of the options he reviewed. Although Isabel continued to engage with him during the process, to throw her off his trail, Anton decided to provide her with lots of immaterial and inconsequential details of each venue he explored. By the time Isabel figured out his true motives, the project was two-thirds completed.

That angered Isabel, but her pragmatic side also understood that she needed to prepare for battle another day while reminding Anton not to ever think of asking her to form a familial alliance with her again. She would never trust him again.

They both moved on from this territorial battle, and Anton narrowed his options to three selections, the Zoo, the Aquarium, and the Museum of Natural History! To avoid any influence on the vote, Grandpa Anton did not share his private notes with family members. The only exception to this rule occurred when a family member had no information on the choices available and needed guidance to vote.

Isabel vehemently objected to this strategy, but Grandpa Anton insisted that it needed to ensure that no family voted without any information on the venues. Isabel proposed an alternative method that permitted members to debate the merits of the options.

Grandpa Anton vetoed this idea because he felt some families were more aggressive than others and would seek to bully others into agreeing with their way of thinking. Anton claimed he had no interest in influencing the outcome of votes and would not allow anyone else to do so either. In the end, Isabel failed to prevail.

The votes were made confidentially to ensure that if the choice turned out to be a disappointment, no family would be blamed. Yet to ensure the integrity of the votes, two family members were selected via a separate raffle to count the ballots and certify the voting selections!

Anton was determined to prevent this voting process from evolving into a slugfest between families that would conflict with his goal of strengthening the family ties of all the attendees! Nonetheless, Isabel and some families secretly mused that “King Anton,” (as Isabel nicknamed him) had too much power.

Selecting the Winning Venue

At the end of the selection process, the Aquarium venue won with 60% of the votes. It was clear that Grandpa Anton was thrilled with the outcome.

After the vote was certified, Anton promised to release all his intelligence-gathering notes that pertained to the winning venue to prepare family members for their exciting selection!

On the day of the event, Anton gushed and advised the families that the first stop at the Aquarium would be to observe a school of fish! He said, “the first stop would epitomize the true meaning of family,” as everyone observed, the fish moving in tandem with each other!

Why was Grandpa Anton so motivated to bring the family together?

Grandpa Anton lost his son at the age of five and felt his family was ripped away from him when he lost his son. He now sought to bring the 25 families closer together so he could live vicariously through them.

As families witnessed several schools of fish getting along so well, even those family members with differences of opinion on various issues began talking to each other.

As Anton watched this transformation evolve, he teared up and confessed that the Aquarium was his first choice. He admitted that watching so many families getting along, had filled his heart with great joy. He said if his deceased son could witness the event, he would have smiled and realized how lucky he was to be a part of this family tree during his short tenure on earth.

The rest of the trip went off with fewer glitches because the first day created a strong foundation for the next two days. Although the weather failed to cooperate for the family’s beach date, the family held a vote on all the movies that had enough open seats to accommodate the group.

The movie selection vote was close, but everyone trusted the outcome and sat down quietly with their big tub of popcorn to enjoy their final gathering before heading back to begin planning for the next reunion.

Who Will be in Charge?

The decision was unanimous, Isabel would oversee the planning and operational logistics for the next family reunion!