We were getting ready to leave town for the weekend to celebrate the life of my stepmother Joan with my brothers and sisters in Mount Dora, Florida. My daughter Alexis had agreed to stop by the house while we were gone to make sure our four chickens had fresh water and food, so we were all set.

But the day before we were supposed to leave, I noticed one of the chickens – Fluff – was spending an unusual amount of time in the nesting box (the private area of the coop where the chickens like to lay their eggs) but she wasn’t producing any eggs.

She would crouch and tremble in the “laying position” with her back end raised up for hours, waiting for something to drop – to no avail. We scoured various backyard chicken forums and farm animal websites in search of information and concluded that Fluff’s behavior was likely an indicator that she was “egg bound”.

“Egg binding” is a common and potentially life-threatening condition in laying hens that occurs when an egg fails to pass through the oviduct at a normal rate.

We panicked. If we couldn’t get Fluff unstuck, she could die. Chickens only have one opening – their vent – through which their eggs, poop and all other bodily excretions must pass. If the vent becomes blocked, everything else gets backed up – and that can be fatal.

Unable to find a poultry veterinarian in town, we attempted several of the home remedies we found online – with no results. I hated the idea of going out of town and leaving my daughter and her family to handle a potentially tragic situation (her son Leo had selected and named Fluff when each of our grandkids “adopted” baby chicks last summer). But I couldn’t miss my stepmother’s celebration of life to stay home with an eggbound chicken!

So, we briefed my daughter and son-in-law on the situation, shared the resources we had found online and headed to Mt. Dora. I was not optimistic.

Undaunted by the unknown territory they were entering, my daughter and her family embraced the challenge and quickly became eggbound chicken egg-sperts. To keep Fluff safe from the other chickens while she struggled to release the obstruction, my son-in-law lined a dog crate with pine shavings to create an “isolation room” for her, complete with a separate nesting box, food and water.

My grandson Leo patiently soaked Fluff in warm Epsom salt baths for the recommended 20 minutes (it’s no small feat to keep a chicken in water that long) and my daughter even played Enya to try and relax her while lubricating her vent with olive oil.

Their creative efforts paid off and Fluff survived the weekend. By the time we returned to Tallahassee, she was clearly on the mend and after a few more warm baths, her blockage finally released. She has since resumed a regular egg-laying schedule.

While Fluff’s egg-bound drama was unfolding in Tallahassee, my brothers and sisters and extended family were gathered around a columbarium in the cemetery where my father and stepmother’s ashes are inurned. Together we traveled back in time and recounted some of the more memorable moments of our childhood. Eight kids, two parents, a dog and cat, living together in the same house, crammed into the same station wagon for family vacations, crowded around the same kitchen table, living, loving and learning. I was struck by how differently each of us remembered our shared past – but how little the precise details actually mattered anymore. Those moments that comprise our family history (the good and the bad, the factual and the embellished) are the connective tissue that binds us together as a family. Without those stories, we would just be people who happened to live in the same house at the same time. Our stories make us who we are – and define how we will be remembered after we are gone.

So, while I initially felt guilty leaving my daughter and her family to figure out how to care for an egg-bound chicken that might not survive, I know the time they spent creating an isolation room, applying olive oil to her vent, soaking her in Epsom salts, and serenading her with elevator music would become one of the many unforgettable stories they will tell and re-tell over time themselves. Some of the details will be exaggerated, and some will be changed, but that shared memory will bind them together as a family.

Pun intended.

“Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders and they will explain to you.”

Deuteronomy 32:7