Dear IF readers,
ugust, 2008 is our month to celebrate the “Extended Family” in our lives. In years past, that might simply mean aunts, uncles, cousins and distant cousins. But nowadays, with the phenomenon of the nuclear family and migration, this extends even further to friends in our communities. We also stop in Europe for our World Tour in August and September. Sit back, read along and enjoy!
I received a note the other day saying a woman I knew for a very long time, Sister Kent had passed away. Sister Kent worked at Doane Stuart, a boarding school that I attended in high school in Albany, New York (www.doanestuart.org). Sister Kent ran the front desk and greeted everyone who came threw the front door. But as a boarding school student she was also the loving, firm grandmother that kept me honest about my comings-and-goings as a rebellious teenager with my friends and boyfriend. She will never know how much trouble she kept me from as a young woman away from home.
There are so many people that become family to us in our lives. Yes, we have biological parents, some of them raise us, and some of them don’t. And then we have the people that stay near and watch over us whether they are parents or grandparents or a sports coach, a family friend, an aunt, an uncle or an older sibling. And it is those that stay near and we can rely on for a talk, a warm meal, a hug, a firm no, or a generous hand –that we remember as the family that we can call our own.
Our writers tell us their own stories of “extended family”. Cheryl Paley once again opens her heart to tell us what help she has received raising her daughter as single mom from her friends that are on her e-list. Imagine an e-list family. That is the wonderful world of the Internet global community we celebrate here at IF mag. Kent Converse asks us to listen to a wonderful tale of his life with two orphan children in Thien An Orphanage in Vietnam. Kent asks us to participate in the world with him.
Our World Tour stop in Europe is my second home. I was raised in the U.K in my early years and went back again and again for visits and teaching in college years. We give tribute to our Swedish-American writer Pia Harden and thank her for all the musings and tales of life on many continents and raising her children in America away from her homeland. Please enjoy our family directory of sites and magazines in “European Family Mags” for stories of culture, travel and lifestyle in Europe this month and in September.
Blessings and good reading,
Cat Wayland,
IF mag Editor and Founder,
cat@internationalfamilymag.com
Ph 646-413-4884
