Reunion in Camelot

Summer is a time for family reunions and my family held ours on Saturday at the Jersey Shore. It was a casual party, with two generations of cousins kicking around a soccer ball, talking in the shade, and slicing a cake celebrating our uncle’s 50th anniversary as a Franciscan.

This is my father’s family, seven children who grew up in Newark and became a priest, a nun, a probation officer, tavern owner, holistic healer, mother of 11, and wife of a Jersey City firefighter.

Uncle Jim has six daughters who lived in Livingston but mostly grew up in South Orange. The family, now 29 counting husbands and children, held hands for a family portrait, the family ties stretching across the beach in Spring Lake.

All of us Joyce-Related are spread throughout the country (and overseas). My cousin Jen and her family (and baby) are here from their home in Mexico City; cousin Tricia from Telluride, Colorado. Father Mike’s ministry has led him to Japan, Africa and most recently Providence, Rhode Island, where he celebrates mass on Sundays for prison inmates.

We’ve been having these summer reunions for as long as I can remember. There are home movies of my generation dancing with Aunt Winnie, Uncle Carl singing, and Billy and Bud reigning over it all. We aren’t the Kennedy’s, but when the Joyces come together it certainly feels like Camelot.

I love hearing the family stories. Maybe one day it could be a book. In the meantime, I'm busy writing about my hometown. We hope you are clicking onto Patch daily for news of Livingston and receiving our daily or weekly newsletter. We run half a dozen stories a day of interest to Livingston residents, covering our town and people who live and work here.

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Families and friends gather in LHS for a blast from the past.

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