The weather was glorious. Brilliant blue-sky with enormous billowing white Texas clouds decorating the deep blue canvas like giant puffs of misshapen cotton balls. The temperature was a comfortable 72 degrees and anticipation was in the air. It was the day of the annual family reunion. I couldn’t wait to share this splendiferous day with family and friends.

The reunion was being held at my parent’s old craftsman style house on 3 acres in a small Texas town just north east of big city Houston. I was visiting from Los Angeles, where I lived, and was busy helping Mom get ready for the arrival of more than 100 relatives on her side of the family. The reunion had been going on since my maternal grandfather and grandmother died more than forty years ago. It was her dying wish that we would all get together even after she had passed.

My father was outside on his tractor as usual and we had no idea what he was doing…as usual. He seemed to be attempting to enlarge the small pond in the front yard near the road. We never questioned what he did. He always had a master plan, even if we did not have a clue what it was.

People had begun to arrive and were milling around the yard greeting each other with hugs and kisses, as is the tradition in the south. They too were watching my father and curious what he was up to now.

He had dug a huge trench on the other side of the house from the pond as well as around the pond to enlarge it to twice its side. Puzzling for sure but we never questioned him on his “projects”, as I said above. He finished his digging and then constructed a huge makeshift pavilion attached to the back of the house. Mom got busy adding table and chairs, setting up areas for people to sit and designated tables for the potluck dishes everyone was bringing.

Suddenly we hear the sound of rushing water and look towards the front of the property. Water is gushing towards the enlarged pond and the trench on the other side, which now has become a raging river. Mom and I are stunned and stare wide-eyed with our mouths open. Turns out he had ordered 100,000 thousand gallons of water to be delivered. But….. He figured wrong.

The water began to surround the house and reunion area. The land disappeared and the house and pavilion began to float with all of us aboard. Over 100 people. Surprisingly, no one was alarmed and, in fact, decided my father was brilliant for creating this festive floating island, which was now surrounded by lush verdant grassy hills!

I wandered around greeting familiar faces and saw a dear cousin that I had not seen in a very long time. Not only had she surprised me by being there herself but had also brought my daughter, Kate, from Washington. What a lovely surprise!

In the meantime, my imaginative father had created a little side room off of the main pavilion that had a helium-filled flotation device as its floor. Upon activating the helium flow, it would rise up like a hot air balloon and float in the sky while tied by a tether to the main pavilion. Kate and I entered the room, activated the helium flow, and floated up into the sky amidst the luxurious, puffy, white cotton balls of clouds.

After we enjoyed the view from our loft, we turned to look back into our little flying room and noticed there were mementos from my life displayed on shelves attached to the walls. I began to cry when I recognized objects and drawings from my mother and daughter. I was so touched. Who had done this? I can only guess it was my father and mother.

We walked to the windows again and as if on cue, my daughter and I put our arms in front of us and dove out the windows. We were flying high above the water and looking down on all the relatives. They didn’t even know we were up there!

We danced and floated in the air slowly descending to land softly and gracefully on the floating paradise my father had built. People greeted us and said to go inside the pavilion area because a famous filmmaker was going to premiere his latest film. We ran inside and took a seat. The film was 3 hours long but it felt like minutes because it was so intriguing and mesmerizing. The Title was “The Girl from LA” and it turned out to be all about me.

I couldn’t believe it. I had always felt like a misfit, not quite belonging and surely not understood. And here was my parent’s gift to me. My true authentic self presented to family and relatives in such a way that they would come to fully understand my wonderfulness.