Personal Narrative: Close To A Family

In the picture, it is December 2005, close to Christmas. My family and I are visiting my dad’s side of the family in Chadron, Nebraska, for a family Christmas party. The cheerful atmosphere is captured in the smiles on my cousin Spencer and I. The one in the front is me, and I am six years old. I am playing with Spencer and his guinea pig. While we were playing, my mom snapped a picture, capturing the silly moment when Spencer put the guinea pig on my head. When I was as young as I am in the picture, I never thought much about visiting family, only that I knew that my parents thought it was essential to spend time with them. Every year on a holiday, we would drive to visit one side of the family or the other, one occasion of which is demonstrated in the picture. My parents would organize family reunions and gatherings, and spend as much time as possible with every member of our family. Back then, I didn’t realize the significance of family gatherings. I knew only that it meant a week or weekend at another …show more content…
He couldn’t hear or breathe properly, and the doctors didn’t predict he would live longer than a few months, even with hospital care. However, he survived longer, against all odds. As young as I am in this picture, nobody had made aware of his condition yet. I didn’t realize that one of the people I spent time with nearly every year might never have been a part of my life. It never even occurred to me. Why should it? Serious medical conditions aren’t a common line of inquiry for a six-year-old, and that was the way he had always been. Since he appeared to be in good health to me, there was no reason to think he was abnormal. Therefore, I learned of his condition much later, only a few years before writing this. When I did find out, I dismissed the story as trivial, something that he had recovered from and couldn’t affect him now. That nonchalant attitude lasted until last