Luci

To be sure, it's an odd thing to have someone live in your home. You must coordinate bathroom times, laundry times, and cook extra food at meal times. Perhaps what is even more odd is when you come to forget that your guest hasn't been with you since the beginning. You simply forget they are a guest to begin with. They become family. At your table for Thanksgiving, around the tree on Christmas morning. As much as such occasions are fun, these are not the moments when a family is born. A family takes shape around the dinner table on a Tuesday night after a hard day at work. A family takes shape as they do the grocery shopping for the week to come. The family is forged when the phone brings bad news at 2am. Family answers that call. They drop whatever they are doing and run in your direction. Such has been our time living with Luci.

Here are a few other indications that Luci is family:

1. M*A*S*H

Luci has taken quite a liking to this show, clearly favoring it over the reality TV shows that poison our daily culture. Growing up, my mom always called M*A*S*H "The idiot show", as my dad and I would spend hours laughing at episodes we had seen hundreds of times already. Luci, welcome aboard. You are in good company.

2. The Marx Brothers

Finding someone under the age of 35 who can quote these movies line for line is quite a rarity. Luci can hold her own. I have received many a text message that said " Do you rumba? Well pick a rumba between 1 and 10."

Now she stands ready to change scenery. She has much to offer those she will serve with. She has much to offer anyone who has the courage and the fortitude to keep up with her.

My photo album is full of memories made with Luci. I know we have many more to make in the years ahead.