One Lonely Stump

I come from a moderately large family, being the fourth of five children.  And both of my parents are still living and in good health.  And we are normally a pretty close family.  But at this very moment, of the seven of us, I am the only one in the country.

Sister number two has lived in Brazil for 12 years.  And on the occasion of her daughter's graduation from high school, my mother and sister #3 went to visit them and join in the celebration.  Sister #1 and her husband have jetted off to Italy for a vacation with some friends.  That leaves my brother and father, who are together on a fishing trip up in Canada somewhere north of Minnesota.

I guess the good news is that if America were suddenly wiped off the map, there would be plenty of Stumps left to carry on the family tree.  I guess the complimentary bad news would be that if every other place in the world except America were wiped out (as some eschatologies seem to suggest), the burden of representing this one branch of Stumps would fall to me alone.