One month later. I am only now able to write about the absolutely fantastic time we had at our family reunion in Jamaica in mid July. I think I couldn't post about it before because I knew there would be no way to really do it justice. We flew in from all over to join our relatives in Jamaica, seventy five of us all told, staying in villas at Silver Sands on the north coast, smaller family groups sharing the rental of each house, with all the groups coming together each day and evening for reunion activities at the beach bar and open air patio adjacent to the swimming beach. It was perfect. My niece Leisa planned the whole thing over the course of the past year and she pulled off a deeply restorative and joyful event for all of us.
The first night we had a big group dinner and greeted family we hadn’t seen in years, met all the new generations we didn't already know, and introduced our tribes anew, each “house” representing one of the original nine Stiebel siblings. My mom’s offspring, the House of Gloria, showed up in force, with all my kids and my brother and all but one of his kids and all our loves there with us. We are stayed in a sprawling beachside villa called Tallawah, fourteen of us in all in a beautiful sea breeze swept place, plus my cousin Carla and her wife Jackie, all the way from San Francisco, who as lone representatives of the House of Beulah, folded in with us. House of Donald and House of Maisy were almost fully represented as well, and House of Percy and house of Terrence had strong contingents too. House of Winifred had a decent turnout, but House of Grace had only one member present, due to some sadness I won’t get into. Only the House of Fay was unrepresented. (None of this attendance tally will mean anything to anyone reading here; this is really for my own record.)
Day 2 we did Survivor games on the beach in the day (I now have the balance and mobility to participate in multigenerational Survivor games on the beach!) and karaoke in the evening. Day 3 we went rafting on the Martha Brae river and had a white party with a DJ and danced under the stars till the wee hours, with exuberant conga lines and the like. Two other family groups were also doing reunions at Silver Sands and we ended up mixing group festivities with a lovely camaraderie. Day 4 we lounged in the morning at our various villas and then gathered at our house in the afternoon to watch the World Cup soccer final (Spain all the way!) before dispersing to dress for the final night’s group dinner at the beach club. We all departed the next morning, with Leisa, Grant, and little Harper traveling back to New York City with us to meet the truck with all their belongings that had driven from Dallas while they were at the reunion. They have now officially moved to the city and are ensconced in the newly rented apartment in Brooklyn.
Since words can't really capture how magical the whole experience of being together was, especially (for me) watching the younger generations of us bond and carry on the warm familial relationships our parents instilled in us as paramount to nurture, even down to little Harper with her little cousins, all the children racing around among the grown ups, the way I remember doing when I was a child myself, since I can't truly evoke how that fed my very soul, I'll just put up some more pictures, in no particular order, and let them hold this space instead.
Survivor red team (he was the youngest at our last reunion).
My berry girl and me.
Gosh, 75 family members in one picture. I can't imagine the hours your niece put into planning this event. How wonderful are all the activities. What a lovely beach house! What a blessing this reunion was!
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