An American Family Reunion
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #32
August 11, 2025
An American Family Reunion
My wife’s family, the Paters, held a second annual family reunion this past Saturday. It sounds like this annual tradition will be recurring every year by popular demand. Everyone able to attend this year’s event has already begun planning the next gathering which will take place one year from now.
The reunion only lasted one day but a number of people came the night before and stayed in hotels. One family camped out in a tent at a local campground. A few, who lived only two hours from the reunion venue, drove in the morning of the gathering and saved the hotel expenses.
Some of those attending did not live very close by. They came long distances to attend this event. Folks traveled from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to gather at the park in New York State to begin the party.
What did the party contain? There was hiking and fishing. There were soccer lessons. Of course, there was time in a playground and rides on a Merry-go-Round. Cousins who had only met once or twice at family gatherings for weddings, now had some real play time together in a very informal setting. Most of the time, the cousins played well together with only occasional cases of being grouchy.
I can’t help but wonder what my wife’s parents and grandparents would think if they saw this family gathering. These grandparents came to the United States from England, Switzerland and Germany in the early 1900’s to establish a new homestead in this nation. In those days, there was a bit of controversy if English people were friends with Germans. There was stigma against the Germans during both World Wars. Sometimes they were referred to as “dirty Germans.”
Somehow this marriage of English/Swiss with a German worked and a prosperous family begin. From that union in the 1950’s, there were 3 children 7 grandchildren, and now 11 great grandchildren. Sadly, my wife’s parents never met their great grandchildren. It does seem ironic that these reunions come in August, which is the month of my wife’s father’s death.
The fabric of our nation has changed in the last 100 years since members of this family first came to this country, and this family reflects those changes. It had been controversial for the English and Germans to be married, but the family is far more diverse now.
Some of the great grandchildren have Filipino roots. One has African American roots. Two have a father from Ecuador who immigrated in the first grade. Probably the greatest mixture is the youngest great grandchild who is a mixture of Swiss, English, Irish, Cherokee, Greek and Italian. How is that for a combination?
This family is truly and American family with a great mixture of many ethnic groups coming to the United States from many continents. All of them look to continue on the American dream.
The strength of this family is diversity, and I am grateful that the ancestors of this family were able to immigrate. I wonder, if they began their journey today, if they would have been able to come here. In a nation that now sees ethnic differences, this family celebrates the ties that bind us. I hope that in the years to come that the whole country will once more embrace the diversity that gives us the strength of the American Dream. As humans and Americans, we have many more similarities than differences. That is to be celebrated.
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