I have only one. Our son has none. That’s the way it goes.
Most of my siblings are brothers from another mother. There is our lifelong friend Fred, for one. There are other, more recent siblings, like Tom, Enrique, and Fred. I have at least a few sisters by other mothers too – Kathy, Linda, Caren, and others as well. Perhaps, you do too.
Our families are populated by individuals whose membership arises from consanguinity – blood relations. But there are those whose membership is a matter of affinity. When I say affinity, I’m not just talking about marriage. All of us create family from among those with whom we hold deeply held beliefs. Yes, that means religion for some folks, but not for me and many others. I would rather accept into my family individuals with whom I share ethical and philosophical positions rather than just religious dogma.
If you are in my age group, you can expect your demise (as do I mine) in the next decade or two. The people who attend your memorial will probably be your offspring and those from the generations that follow them, and people from among our siblings. I don’t think that it will matter to us who does or doesn’t attend our memorials. I think that we dead people won’t care about what happens among the living.
That said, I would wish to be remembered, if only fleetingly, by my siblings who might remember my sense of humor, perhaps a particular gesture of kindness, or perhaps something else that I have not imagined but that mattered to them.