"Please don't be mad at me..."

That's what she pleaded when she explained my own personality to me. I cannot be angry. If anything, her explanation made everything so much clearer and I think this conversation has brought us closer together.

You see, I'm a gatherer. I will take what you give me and hold it and carry it for you if you don't want to deal with it. I know how hard it is to carry all of these things for people. I try not to give others the burdens that belong to me. I know how heavy it gets. I know how scared one can be when charged with burying someone else's dead body.

I've concluded that no matter what the school definition is for the types of family units, every family is broken in some way. I can't even begin to address mine even though I come from a 'nuclear' family. I bet you have a similar tale. We all have family secrets we don't want the world to know.