What makes a FAMILY?

Is family limited to persons that share your D.N.A.? Do they have to look a little like you? Have similiar facial features? Share eye color, hair color and a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of the nose? What about common ancestors? In my home "family" is a term used for a loose collection of people that we share our lives with. My daughter age 18 at the time asked me,"Which side of the family is Aunt Mary from?" "Aunt" Mary worked with your grandmother at the bank. "So which side is that?" Some people collect rocks, stamps or boyd's bears, I collect people. Here is a picture of some of my family members aboard the USNS Comfort.

These are my sisters and my closest friends because we shared our living space, this is where we slept and brushed our teeth, rarely at the same time.

THis is my "sister", Kristen. She missed the last day photo shoot, so I wanted to include her in her most natural state. The hours aboard ship could be long if you had evening obligations and early morning muster. I promise this was between patients.

And this is the rest of my "family". Sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts and more than one of them young enough to be my own children. A special shout out to the "curmudgeon" that reminded me of my own brother. He had a really tough exterior, wanted to be hard to crack, but had a heart of gold inside. My other brother who appeared to have his own agenda but he was always there to look out for me. He protected me from things I knew about and probably many that I didn't. ANd of course, some of them so sweet you just wanted to hug the stuffin' out of them. THe best sisters in the world, one that can sing like an angel, one (or more) that can swear like a sailor but all of them kind and caring, supportive. So that's what makes a family. A collection of people that you share something in common with, a period of time, or an experiance. Not entirely perfect, but people you would spend time with again. That's more than I say about people that do share my D.N.A. Hope all is well at sea, my friends.