Through The Door...

I have this photo of my family...my "Original Family" The Mayo's...taken back in something like 1974. You can see us as true future contestants on Project Runway... But in this photo is my Dad, my mom my brother Paul, my sister Angela and me. The little one, obviously not happy. It seems by our name tags that we have on we were all at a 10th Mountain Division Reunion in New Hampshire. So this is what the 70's gave us...we THOUGHT it was fashionable so lets run with it.

I say this is the Original Mayo family because It was. And to be honest I do not think another picture exists of the five of us. A few years after the picture was take my brother Paul was killed in a car accident and left us. So The Mayo five became Four....but as we grew there was always others that came through our door and became family. If they stayed for a long or short time it would never matter. We had this open door policy in our home. Anyone from anywhere could find a hot meal, a place to lay their head and open arms. There was always people. No cost , no chores, no nothing was ever expected of them. (I just hope that they have been able to do the same for others as my parents did for them by passing it on.)

Although Angie and I are married and we have our eye candy husbands, (my sister has been married longer than she carried the name Mayo)The Mayo Four stood strong some thirty odd years after the passing of Paul. Here we are in April of 2008 at The Marco Island Relay For Life. One of our favorite causes.

Five months later the Mayo Four became the Mayo Three. I will have to find a picture for you all, but I think my point is... That we grow each day as individuals, we learn so much from people and we may not know it. My mother, my father, my sister and myself learned more from the people that stayed with us throughout the years as the Mayo Family.

Each person has a story, each person has baggage, each person has or needs or wants to give something. The Mayo's just allowed them to be themselves. They never turned anyone away. They always had a chance or two at our home. As a society today we turn lots of people away, they are different, they look funny, they don't have the same religious back rounds as we do, they have different political parties, they don't have money. they have too much money, they have different color skin, they have handicaps that we just cant accept. We are selfish and want things for ourselves and don't want to share, we can't trust...as a society....

My parents would not have been able to teach us as they did when we were growing up if we did not open our family door to people and invite them in. Maybe someday you should open your door and learn about the people who walk in and how you can you learn from them? Don't try to teach them, learn from them...but the first step is to let them through the door.....