Column
It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year to Not Have Family
More and more Americans are single and childless. This is why the holidays are great for us.
“Im so sorry you have no family,” an old friend said to me this fall. We were having coffee, catching up after many years while I was visiting her city. She made the statement without judgment or pity. And while I felt her empathy, I also felt like she was talking about someone else. People who don’t have families live in orphanages. Oliver Twist had no family. Cosette from Les Miserables was so familyless as to have no surname. I am a middle-aged adult living a comfortable, independent life. Not having a family at this age feels akin to not having a car and living in Manhattan. It isn’t a loss, because it isn’t applicable to my situation. Besides, it’s not even true. I do have a family.
“I have my brother,” I said to my friend.
“I know,” she said. “But that’s not what I mean.”
“I have cousins,” I continued. “I have an aunt left. And actually an uncle, too, now that I think of it.”
“Yeah, but…,” she said.
What my friend meant by having no family is that my parents are dead and that I have no kids or life partner. These…
