The Family Reunion Trip: It's All Relatives

In the evening, a trio of Fisher sisters from Lancaster danced and crooned gospel songs. Throughout the weekend, Lois Belle, the seventy-something mother of Regina Belle, offered rousing prayers and blessings worthy of the pulpit at a mega-church. During dinner, Richard Wade, 43, a former White House aide now working as a health care lobbyist in Columbia, S.C., offered a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina that left many in the room grabbing for handkerchiefs.

The reunion organizers had deliberately crafted a program that featured a variety of voices. "We wanted everybody to see how fantastically their cousins sing or how well they make speeches," said Doug Crockett, Tiara's father and a reunion committee member. "What better way to generate family pride and inspire the younger generation?"

In the afternoon, many reunion members, visiting Atlanta for the first time, climbed on a bus chartered by the committee to see the city's African American heritage sites. At the first stop, Ebenezer Baptist Church, a guide spoke about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who was pastor of the church during the 1960s. Across the street, at the King Center, the group watched videotapes of civil rights marches. Finally, they stopped at King's tomb, next door to the church.

As the bus rolled back to the hotel, Helene Fisher, 35, a Washington schoolteacher who attended the reunion with her 10-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, reflected on the excursion. "Of course, these are sights that everyone should see since they are part of our history," she said. "To have seen them with my children and other family members was a particularly rich moment."

Dinner, Dance, Worship

For many, the day's richest moment was the formal dinner and dance at the hotel later that evening. Uncles, aunts and cousins fanned into the hotel ballroom dressed in chic evening gowns and natty suits. Over a dinner of baked salmon, broiled vegetables and petits fours, they listened as Calvin Cauthen paid tribute to the family elders and Sue Hopkins read the names of the eldest and youngest family members, those who had recently graduated from high school and college, and those who had done military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

No sooner were the tables cleared and the benediction said than an Atlanta deejay broke out the Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and other soul and R&B oldies. The dance floor filled quickly and, for three hours, stayed packed.

"I feel like we're way ahead of the game," Lisa Crockett said, smiling as she surveyed the room. "Whenever you have grandparents and teenagers dancing to the same song, you're doing something right."

No African American reunion is complete without a worship service. For the Fishers, the kind of loyal Baptists who open the church on Sunday mornings, it would be a centerpiece event. And so, early Sunday morning, decked out in stylish dresses, suits and hats, the extended family filed into the ballroom for the last time. As they finished platters of eggs, bacon and biscuits, Regina Belle stood.

As she sang a soulful rendition of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," a gospel favorite, the room fell silent. Then her husband, John Battle, a former Atlanta Hawks basketball star and now an ordained minister, took the microphone and, in a commanding voice, read from the Scriptures. In the rich tradition of Atlanta ministers, he exhorted the offspring of Berry and Orange Fisher to never forget how the power of connecting with the higher being can help them through hardships. "Always keep a prayer on file" was his refrain.

After Battle's sermon, many faces in the crowd were covered with tears. Other family members seemed pensive. Eventually, though, they began to chat with one another. Three days of reconnecting, dancing, touring and laughing had bonded them, and it was hard for them to get up and leave.

Gary Lee will be online to discuss this story Monday at 2 p.m. during the Travel section's regular weekly chat onhttp://www.washingtonpost.com.