They say "family is everything" but sometimes I wonder if they meant that for just immediate family or it extends to include the extended family members. Growing up, I admired people when they talked about their family, especially with relatives like uncle's, cousins, aunts and the rest of the extended family.
I know most of the people in my mothers side, some even reside in the same city with my mother but they keep to themselves and never visits. I wanted to do something that would bring the whole family together especially with my grandmother in town. It was a good opportunity for me to use my grandmother as a means to bring as many family members as possible together under on umbrella so to say.
So I took the first step by informing my husband about my plans and he was in full support. I also told my mother and grandmother that I planned to have a family get together and that all family members within Lagos and it's environment must attend or pay a fine.
We have a family group chat so I posted there and informed everyone to come eat and dine together as a family, the bills were also on me so they just needed to come around and have fun, there was no excuse not to attend the get together.
The date was fixed and I made arrangements for food, drinks and snacks, I wanted everyone to have a lovely experience and bond with each other to the point that they would keep remembering the get together and would want to have such again.
"Nma ukwu (great granny) you will bless your children, grandchildren and great grand children, remember you will be meeting them (great grandchildren) for the first time" I told my grandmother, that was her assignment for the day.
I also told my mother to forget what ever happened in the past that caused a rift between her and her siblings, that I'm organizing this special event to bring the family together so that they can be reunited in bonds of love just as a family should.
Mother agreed with me and told me that she doesn't have anything against anyone. I was working had to make sure the coast was clear before the day of event because a stitch in time saves nine.
Finally on the day of the family event, the number of people that showed up mesmerized me, my aunts, cousins, uncle's, inlaw's, second and third cousins, niece's and nephew's, sister's all showed up to my greatest surprise.
I didn't expect such crowd to honour the invitation but it was obvious that they also missed themselves and wanted to catch up on lost time. Many had kids that the family met for the first time and Grandma opened the event with prayers for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It was indeed a happy occasion for the family.
Everyone thanked me for having such a good thought and taking neccessary action to organize such an event in this present economy that things are hard without the support of any family member.
I told them that a lot of money was definitely involved in the arrangements but that was a sacrifice to save the family bond before it is completely destroyed. A lot has happened in just a few years and many now have their own family, it is important to help the children understand that they have a large family and they need to know who their extended family members are.
"A stitch in time save nine" I said to my uncle, imagine if this family was left like this, it would get to a point that nothing would be left to be cherished in the family and everyone would go their separate ways and do things differently.
My mother said to me " you've really made me proud, thank you for organizing this get together that brought all the family members together " she also prayed for me and wished me well.
Other members of the family also thanked me and confirmed that it's the first time ever that something like this was done in the family and that it won't be the last because they will be taking it up from there.
They organized themselves and set up a meeting schedule for the year 2025 and how they would be meeting monthly, things they needed to work on as a family and other family matters.
January 5th 2025 was really a remarkable day of reunion for my family. They ate, drank and danced happily while the children played and bonded with each other. Everyone ate to satisfaction and there was enough drinks for everyone.
Indeed a stitch in time save nine as I saw the impending family danger and quickly took action to save the family bond by bringing them together with a main purpose of reunion and my strategy proved successful.
All images are mine.
