My history with family in the traditional sense is not a happy one for reasons I shall not divulge.

That said, since my soulmate departed a little over a year ago, I have established a strong bond with my late brother's eldest son. I'm now officially his surrogate parent - his personal family history is also complicated.

On the other hand, my half-sister in the US who had given me comfort and support while I was grieving, suddenly turned against me when I made a request for more space, She had wanted us to speak every week on the phone and was grumpy when I changed to fortnightly calls.

(We didn't have a shared family history as I was 14 years older and had already left home to get away from my stepmother when she was three years old.

We'd gone our separate ways and forty years later she found me on Facebook.)

As I'd completed my healing journey, I requested in the kindest way, trying to explain why I wanted to stop the phone calls altogether. (It was only after my soulmate died that we began speaking on the phone - prior to that it had been emails and messages on WhatsApp.

Her reaction was unexpected. She ghosted me, removed me as a friend on Facebook and said she never wanted to contact me again.

Most of my family are not through blood-ties, but friends, including those here on Medium, who have my back and are always there for me, and I for them.

Sorry for the long response, but I didn't want to post a story on this theme of family out of respect for my sister's privacy.

I also believe family is not limited to blood ties. Thank you for validating that!