“In Times Like These…”

Y’all! My Momma’s youngest sister asked us to do a family Zoom last night and it went a little something like this…(follow along)

Participants in order of age:

Brother 1: Frowned a lot because he wouldn’t put his glasses on

Sister 1 (aka My Momma): Was delayed because I had to call from my other phone (that she wouldn’t answer) to walk her through how to get on

Sister 2 (also a former principal and the prayer warrior of the family): Was on her iPad and READY. She laughed the whole time, while also trying to get her husband to get in the camera. They had the best light because they live in Miami 🙄

Brother 2 (partner deceased): Came in with his hand raised before we ever saw his face and didn’t lower his hand until we walked him through at the end. We also used to think he was a conspiracy theorist until the stuff he told us would happen started happening 🧐😳

Sister 3: The convener and had a slight echo because she also had to help Brother 1 with logistics. She is also the event queen. Birthday parties, game nights and now the cook of the family, although Brother 2 is shaping up his culinary skills

Grandchild 1 (and husband): Traveling and not present

Grandchild 2: Me

Grandchild 3: In the dark in Texas and we were lucky he turned his camera on since he teaches

Grandchild 4: Deceased

Grandchild 5: Takes after his dad as the comedian

Grandchild 6 and 7: Will be on the next Zoom

Great-granchild 1: Surrounded by wall anime, with headset on and controller in hand

Zoom screen (after we finally got everyone connected, discussed making sure everyone had bottoms on before they stood up and that we would not be singing together because of the delay) said something like: Your meeting will not be disconnected even though your time is up.

Family: Chattering because they thought it read it was disconnecting. After we told everyone to click “okay”, the meeting went as follows…

Discussion about milk:

G3: I just stopped drinking whole milk

G2: You don’t care about your stomach

G5: You might as well be drinking straight from the udder, you’re drinking ALL the puss. Shit…

G2, 3: 🤣😂🤣😂 (no one heard G5 cuss, so they don’t know why we’re laughing)

G5: Oh, I ain’t mean to cuss

S2: Ewwww

B2: Before we get disconnected for real, is there something serious we need to discuss?

G2: Is B1 sleep?!?

B1: Closes his mouth and opens his eyes

There was discussion about the new Covid strain being in Florida and who is going to get the vaccine. S2 fussed at B2 for driving home BACKWARDS on New Year’s Day because his transmission went out, and G4 (his son) asked why he didn’t call him?

B2: I wanted to see what my situation was really like. I’m still getting my neck together, but “The One” took care of me

G2: B1 is sleep again!

We talked about how our circle has not been broken and thoughts about end-of-life care. Some asked to switch topics as to not talk about death.

G2: We need to talk about it so everyone knows what everyone wants, especially since mortuaries are becoming overcrowded

We were updated about other family members and discussed adding more to our next Zoom because now that B2 knows what he’s doing, he wants to do it more often.

S3 asked B1 to sing a song to close us out and for S2 to pray.

B1: Nahhh

S1,2,3 and B2: Come on

B1: *Sighs, frowns more and rolls his eyes*…🎶In Times Like These…🎶

S1,3: 😭🙌🏾😭🙌🏾😭🙌🏾😭🙌🏾

S2: *Prays a powerful prayer*

The power of my grandparents lives on!