Importance of Family

I had a pretty interesting weekend. We were only in Arizona for about a day. All of my moms siblings except for one were able to come visit my grandma (meaning 5 all together). Emily and I were the only grandkids there. I think the youngest one besides me is like at least 30, so that can make it difficult to all get together I guess.
So we visited my grandma in her nursing home somewhere in Arizona. The reason she is there is because she has Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's is an interesting disease. It affects the muscles and makes it so one can't sit still. They are shaky and have constant involuntary moving of the body. It's almost like a squirmy 3 year old who just can't sit still. At the same time, Parkinson's does nothing to the person mentally. Although my grandma was having a lot of difficulty functioning she was completely aware of what was going on around her. I think alot of people don't realize that one. In fact most of my mom's brothers and sisters weren't treating her like the adult she was which was kind of sad.
Anyway...
All I could keep thinking about this weekend was the idea of "family". My "family", or lack there of, makes me really think about how I want my own kids to grow up knowing their grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles.
I met my uncle and his wife for basically the first time. Well I guess technically the last time we saw him I was 2 or 3, so that doesn't really count. I have cousins whom I've never met and don't know anything about. And of course there's the constant issue of my mom, the youngest and one who was actually raised by her grandma because of it, constantly being left out of family things.
Anyway. I'm not trying to complain, it was just making me realize a few things. Family is important, and you don't get to choose yours so you're kind of stuck with what you've got! But when I am older with a family of my own I want it to be a close knit one. i've seen plenty of other families to see how they can work and how they truly love and care for each other. At one point I was standing with one aunt and my mom and sister with my grandma after a period of silence she noted emotionally "It's really sad when you don't even know your own family to the point that you can't even carry on a conversation with them." I agree. I don't want to grow old and realize that I wish I could have lived my life differently. Treated my family differently. Keep your family close guys, no matter how strange they are. It's so important!