Why does it take a tragedy or a wedding to bring a family together .You see, I come from a family of nine. I have three brothers and five sisters; my mother and father also come from big families. Dad comes from a family of nine, and mom comes from eight. Growing up as a kid, it seemed like we were always around aunts, uncles, cousins and my brothers and sisters.

As we started to get older, it seemed like we started drifting apart. Some went off to school; some started having families or moved out of Massachusetts. As years went by, it seem like every one had moved out of town .Every once in a while I would see an aunt or an uncle or a cousin. On November 23, 2006, I lost one of my cousins. He was just 36, and his kidneys failed. Two days later his mother passed a way from a heart attack. That made it a sad weekend. They will be missed by all. After the funeral the family went back the Marine Corps Post to eat. I was sitting with my dad and one of my cousins, and we had started talking about the good old days when I was growing up. Most of my family lived around Laurel and Clayton Street here in Worcester. We started talking about the old neighborhood-like when would jump over the Summer Street Jailhouse wall to play football with family and friends. It was great how the inmates and the guards would cheer us on.

I can remember how we would go down to East Park to watch my dad or my uncles play football or softball when we where young. We would start our own games to be like the adults who where playing ball. That was a good time-- all of us at the park playing together, and we were all safe.

Back in the late 70's early 80's our softball coach was my dad, whom I love and is like my best friend. He was always a fair man, but he would get static at times because eight out of the nine of the players on the field were family. We had heart, and we loved the game. There was no one that could keep up with us. We had a good team. It was about playing ball and having fun with our family and friends not just the love of the game. We would play at this park called Beaver Brook. It was a good time. It was like being at a World Series game, and everyone was there. We always had a good lineup, and we all came ready to play. When football season came around it seem like the same thing.

Family and friends were over the place, and it was great to see a lot of family at the games. Everyone had fun laughing and cheering each other on. Those were the most memorable times for me, and the good days when we had family around all the time.

My dream is that all my family will get back together without a tragedy or a wedding. It would be like the old times-- the fun, playing ball, cookouts, just talking and being together. It's all about the love of family.