Collateral Damage #2

My daughters have a baby brother courtesy of Mr.Ex & the Little Missus. From all reports he is quite adorable and bears a certain resemblance to his sisters.

I will never know him.

I am the child of a blended family--blended before blending was popular or tolerated or accepted or the norm. My mother was my father's 3rd wife. Marriage #1 produced no children (he said.) Marriage #2 was to a woman who was married previously. She had a daughter from that previous marriage and together my father and wife # 2 had a son (the siring of the son is a matter of some debate--but nevermind because this is the simple version of the story.) The daughter of the previous marriage became pregnant at age 16 and was married (or not--this is the simple version of the story, remember) But the marriage (or the not-marriage) fell apart, and my father and wife #2 took over the raising of the baby who was legally adopted by my father and wife #2. But wife #2 died, and my father and my mother fell in love, and eloped, and kept their marriage secret, and after some months eventually came out of the closet about being married. The adopted girl was then raised by them, and I was born, and the adopted girl thereby became my adopted half-sister. When my brothers were born, she was their adopted half-sister too.

We all spoke. Some of us lived together, and those that didn't got together with us frequently to barbecue, play badminton, shuffle board, horse shoes and canasta.  I didn't know then that all of that was some kind of miracle.