One of the many people my husband’s clan and I invite to family celebrations isn’t related to us by blood or marriage. He isn’t dating one of us, he hasn’t met any of us, and none of us – were he to attend – would know his face. But from time to time he gets an invite to a birthday of someone he has never met and is asked to bring a plate.
He has never come, but he always responds with excitement and warmth. He’s not technically “one of us”, but he shares a surname with some of us and over years earned himself the ultimate sign of group acceptance: a nickname.
