All Family Law, All Around the WorldSM

A Family Law Story – 20 Years Later

by | Dec 3, 2019 | Family Law

The waiting room was packed with soon-to-be grandparents as they mixed and mingled, dined on vending machine snacks and mindlessly occupied themselves during the long hours that oftentimes is labor.

As to be expected, the men were aquiring their steps as they paced off every square foot of floor. The women were more productive with their idle time as they labored on this and that, multi-tasking by killing the time while actually getting something accomplished.

As you would certainly expect, everyone was more than civil, they were downright familial as they whiled away the hours, checking on the progress periodically when the father-to-be could provide a quick update like a newsroom crier.

What you would not know, if you sat silently in this room, observing this assemblage, is that it was brought together after it had been torn apart many years before.

Dad-to-be’s mom and dad had divorced 20 years before. They had both remarried and were raising more children with their new spouses. The new spouses (far from still being anything close to new) were familial with their counterparts, joined here in a common mission.

Mom-to-be’s parents were in attendance as well, anxious and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their daughter’s first child. The waiting room was crowded and filled to the brim with latent energy.

Many hours later (what mom-to-be probably thought was way too many hours later), the long awaited event occurred and a healthy baby boy was introduced into this great, wide and curious world.

As the baby was inspected by medical staff, the grandparents gathered at the two viewing windows and gawked and teared up at the proof in the pudding of the ever expanding family.

Before long, other children of the several marriages gathered with their parents and the new parents and the new addition to create the celebration of welcoming this new charge into the fold. The fold was wide. The fold had its complexities, but the fold held and was one.

As is always true, time passes. Life goes on. And life constantly offers new opportunities to write the future.

I often write about client events that have long passed. But this one is recent and this one belongs to no client. This story is mine. This story is the story of my family.

Happy Birthday to the latest addition to our ever expanding family!

-Michael Manely 

Archives