Family Reunion - Reinert Style

Every 5 or so years we have it. The big Reinert reunion. People come from Texas, Idaho, Washington state, Virginia, Colorado and more to St. Joseph, Missouri where Emma and Henry Reinert, German Lutheran immigrants, met and began a family. They raised 7 children and one grand-daughter - my mother. The Reinert brothers were stone masons - built some of the precious few walls still standing in old St Joe today. They had a signature way to lay cement so that it looked like a neat little roll between the stones. I remember playing on this wall and above the old green garage doors as a child. Better yet so does my mom - she played cafe and pretended to put dishes between the stone pillars! Even still more significant, my Grandmother used to tell me how she played on the stone wall above the garage. It seemed to all of us quite magnificant at the time.
We watch our kids grow up, our parents grow old and feel the sting of our grandparents departing this life. Yet we gather. We eat and - well - we sing. We sing German beer drinking songs and patriotic songs. We talk about God and who looks good and what fortunes (or misfortunes) each of our lives has held since last we gathered. We want to continue to meet - even though we are worlds apart and don't write or visit. We embrace with great joy and deep memories of childhood and camaraderie of heritage. There are a few left who actually remember Henry and Emma. There are many to come who will have the joy of belonging that they created.

My dear dear Marsha.The first cousins still living with only a few missing.