Reflections on 80 years

Tonight we were part of a celebration for a good friend's 80th birthday. The star of the gathering sang to us rather than give a speech; his own words to an old tune. 

It was a really wonderful gathering of our friends, some of their children and children's children and friends, and connections that could challenge many. This is whanau; extended family that includes blood relatives and others that form one's sense of family. This is not our pakeha family; we are part of this whanau, as we have been for nearly fifty years. An evening that brought me out of the gloom that threatened earlier.