Generations: The Long Game

Back to the Future

Ollie had a lot of information to absorb. He sat between Marjorie and Vivian. They had tag teamed stories and he felt like he had been on quite an adventure. "So, you got married" he looked to Viv, and "you lot got married and had another child" He looked at Marjorie as both women said, "yes." The trio laughed as Reece and Siobhan joined them. It was getting late. Their first day had all but gone, but Ollie was energized by all the stories they had imparted.

As the two couples made their way to their rooms for the night, Ollie went in search of Noah. He realized the family's rich story came from years of maintaining connections that for some would have long since gone to the wayside. His own family didn't value connection. To say the opposite would have been more accurate.

He found Noah amongst many younger people in the lounge. Looking around at the spacious room he tried to envision them during the engagement party and what it must have been like for Winter and Autumn knowing they were mere hours away from getting married. Today he could see they were still completely besotted with each other. He wondered what it took to experience love like that. He loved Noah, but things were still rather new and developing. He snuggled into his embrace and settled his head to his chest. From what he could make out this is where many of the young people intended to sleep.

Noah explained that the only place to stay locally was the Villa and they tended to let the ones with children stay there while the younger generations just found rooms in the house to sleep. Over the years his grandmothers had had quite a large cottage built past the gardens where many of the aunts and uncles stayed. As Ollie drifted off to sleep in Noah's arms, he was mesmerized by how all the smiling faces he saw today were the result of the love of five couples from a nursery all those years ago.

When he awoke the sunlight had already filled the room. He extracted himself from Noah's arms and made his way through a maze of people. He padded off to the kitchen for some water, but he was met with a smell that threatened to overcome his senses. He entered the kitchen and saw Reece busy at work creating all manner of breakfast items. The man was eighty-six years old, and he and most of his friends looked like they couldn't be a day past sixty-five. Ollie wondered how that could be.

"Good morning! I heard a lot about your famed cooking skills yesterday, but I have to be honest I didn't think I would have the chance to witness them myself."

Reece knew what he was referring to. "Age is just a number, my boy. Funny though because back then the joke was that millennials seemed to have aged at faster rates than the generation before us. I think this lot, myself included, just kind of leveled out at some point after the stress of Roger was relieved."

Ollie sat across the bar from him and was reminded of how Marjorie told stories of them doing that very thing as he cooked. A smile crossed his face before he was startled by another voice. "Reecy, are you cooking?"

He turned and saw a woman about Reece's age. Her beauty shown through, but her red hair was all but faded to white. "You must be our Noah's sweetheart." With the sweetheart, his mind was whizzed back to yesterday. This was Grandma Mia. It had to be.