One of my sons went to MA in May to attend a funeral of my nephew (same age as my son---44) because we couldn't go down as a family. My only sibling, my sister (who was there in MA too)----said she wanted my email addy after all this time of not speaking to me (1972) when I got baptized as a JW......she did write in May and we have picked up the pieces of our tattered relationship.
The same son's birthday in July---we had stopped in with a gift....and my "DFed in the 70's" son popped in later.....I had stopped speaking to him in 1981 when that horrible edict came from the WTS about association with DFed family members not living at home. I had sent him letters apologizing profusely but he had told the rest of the family that it was too late and he would never have anything to do with me ever again. He ended up "venting" that evening and then inviting us to Thanksgiving dinner with his wife and my grandchildren 12-18 and 24 years of age.
Things are far from "normal" but the ice HAS been broken and fences are being mended....on both counts. It has been a landmark year for both of these things to have happened within two months of each other!
Annie