After that phase, we begin to look toward the younger generation. We start to put more of our energy into mentoring them than continuing to develop our own lives and careers. Sometimes we are forced to move into different phases in part by the circumstances of life. As a teen I was forced to move into parts of adulthood whether or not I was ready. I was starting to head toward mentoring and preparing the next generation already when my mother passed away and really enforced that change.
I think of all this as I hear that Aunt Thelma has passed away. Aunt Thelma was my grandfather's last living sibling. A generation is fading. My grandfather was the oldest of his generation and from his oldest, my dad, through my dad's cousins through my cousins to me, the baby was a pretty continuous stair step of family members. With my dad and his dad gone for years and now Thelma, well, the chapter is closing.
Now that I am closer again to the Hogan side of the family, there are several people keeping me from being the patriarch of the family, for which I am grateful. And even though I never knew Thelma, I am very aware that time marches on. But, that's OK, the future is in someone else's hands and my job now is to help strengthen and prepare those hands.