MOC8 - Day 17 - Hindsight Is 20/20
rchansen, Jan 20, 2020
- Description:
- Credits: Origin - MPM. Generations - Sahin Designs. Generations - One Little Bird & Paislee Press.
Journaling: Before my grandma passed away we received her blue trunk full of photos that my dad could scan. As a little girl I would spend weeks at the cabin with my grandma. She taught me how to play cribbage and how to make her pulled pork. We spent hours weeding her very large vegetable garden. But what I loved doing most with her was looking through that trunk of photos and hearing all about the people in the photos. She loved her mother more than anyone in the world. Her dad was hardworking and her hero. There were ix years between her and her big brother, Johnny, but they were very close. Her cousin, Audrey, was her best friend. Her grandparents came over from Germany with their family of seven when her mother was just six years old. I heard the stories over and over again and thought I'd always remember.
When we lost my grandma in 2010 I was heartbroken!! I started putting together a scrapbook of her life as a memory book to flip through when I was missing her most. There were the photos of her as a little girl. Photos of her and Johnny with their parents. Photos of my grandma and Audrey as teenagers. There were photos of her maternal grandparents. But no photos of her paternal grandparents.
I reached out to a distant cousin in Kansas via an email address my dad gave me. I came to find out my grandma's paternal grandparents were quite the story! Her grandmother died days after giving birth to her sixth child. Her grandfather had actually been married once before. He had six children from his first marriage as well and she also died after childbirth. After his second wife died he married again and had eight children with his third wife. Twenty children!!
I was hooked - I needed to learn more about our family history. I was put in touch with other distant cousins. We shared photos and stories. When talking we refer to ourselves as coming from the first, second or third family. I received a few photos of my grandma's paternal grandfather but no one had a photo of her grandmother. And then seven years after I started digging int our family, my uncle was sifting through a box in his basement and came across a photo. It was my grandma's grandparents and their three boys taken shortly before her death (two daughters had died in infancy and she was pregnant with their youngest daughter in the photo). It is one of my favorite photos.
I thought I would remember my grandma's stories forever. I don't I have bits and pieces an can fill in the blanks some when talking to other distant cousins. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had shown more interest when my grandma was alive. I have so many questions now!! But I feel so fortunate to be learning more about my grandma and those that came before her. To be meeting distant cousins. To find their willingness to share photos and stories. Family was everything to her...I know she would love to see what we're finding as we dig.
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- Category:
- Month of Challenges 8
- Uploaded By:
- rchansen
- Date:
- Jan 20, 2020
- View Count:
- 268
- Comment Count:
- 2
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