Introspective Glance into the Author

 Once upon a time, two young people fell madly in love, married, and within the year had their one and only child. A little girl who would grow to love her family and extended family and become a gatherer. 

 

Her father would tell her that during her infancy, her parents were so poor, that they had wall paper for walls in a big square room, and an outhouse for bathroom... The first winter, he would have to break the ice crystals off her blanket where her breath had frozen. Then when she was a toddler, she lived through the devastating event of her father having his leg cut off in a logging accident. Unknown to  him, it gave her inner fortitude watching his recovery progress as well as how he conducted himself through life, never feeling sorry for himself and helping others. In her beginning school years, she saw her mother finish college and begin teaching, and her father go to trade school and become head of the heating and air conditioning department at the local College.  When she learned to drive, she and a close friend, who travel through the state of Oklahoma to see where family lived and learn about her roots. Although she had grown up knowing her many cousin, and aunts and uncles, it was a discover for her as she sought out areas on her own and developed her relationship with them by herself. This was the beginning of her deep love of family and desire to hold them close. She moved away to another state to become a registered nurse and fell in love to marry in an area that was 10 hours away from friends and family.  At first it was lonely, but as her own family grew to 6 children, she wanted them to know her family. Her parents moved to live near by so her children learned from her and their father the joy of having family close by. She and her husband would alter Thanksgiving and Christmas with the families. When she began studying about Family History and how to do genealogy, she was elated and began reaching out to all she knew to discover anything she did not know. She was blessed that some shared family treasures she did not know about and some shared stories that she was amazed to learn about. It was glorious time, her husband would take her on trips to visit earlier areas that early ancestors had lived in. Her love of Family continued to grow. When Facebook was introduced to her, she was working with FamilySearch to create Pages for each of the Untied States, and various Countries. This gave her an idea to create her own families Group that would allow for reaching out to new found cousins that because of circumstances of separation, she had never gotten to know until as she had worked on her Family Trees, and blogged and they connected. This has been a joy in her life and her children now are excited to find where their distant cousins are and have fun with them...

I have learned in life the joy comes from the ordinary things we do and the joy of being connected.

Thank you Amy Johnson Crow for your persistence in getting people to write. I have been trying to get back to blogging. I hope I can hang on this time.

#52ancestors 

A Familiar Question for me These Last Few Years "Where has all the Time gone"

Well, this is what happens when you think you pushed the publish button, and didn't. I have been busy with my FamilySearch Mission working on the War of 1812 files, and  helping my 5 children and the 34 grandchildren. Yes, I procrastinated doing what I tell others to do....Write their family stories.

The last blog post I made was 3 years ago! So much has happened since 2019 and I feel almost overwhelmed when I contemplate what I have seen and done. This is an opinion piece, my thoughts, add yours in the comment section if you want. 

My youngest son would say "my world has gone to Hell in a handbasket" ( 😁😂well not in those words because he is not from that generation, but you get the gist of the matter) . 

Last year when the medical world lost its soul, I lost my oldest daughter, Aine. I lament because there are so many things she still had to do, but she was so overwhelmed with life, the disease COVID was able to take her from us. 

What has brought me here was a thought about my sweetheart Aine and time. She tried to control her "time" by making beautiful planners. Mother of 8 children, an absentee husband ( he worked for 20 days at a time miles and hours away), she wanted to make sure all was taken care of. Her youngest had to be at therapy 2 days a week 40 minutes away. There was homeschooling to be done, and she was driven to make sure they were taught well.  She was a writer and that creativity permeated her life.  Those planners were very important to her, and because she loved beautiful things, she put time and thought in to how they were organized, what they looked like and how functional they were. I think we all have a need to have control over ourselves and circumstances, but some more that others. 

This is an example of her life as she wrote on Facebook... "Russell just left for 20 days and my living room looks like Grandpa Joe's after his stroke (chapter 2 of my book) - it's filled with towers of boxes taped shut labelled with black magic marker written in bold letters. Like my protagonist, I haven't the heart to go through them. Funny how fiction can reflect a warped reality. I need to go write something fun. 😛"

"For Love" was the only book she publicly published and she used her pseudonym TexasBlu

I have an email file of chapters for a book I so wanted her to finish. Time was not on our side.

This is what she said about her family.  "I am grateful to be the mom of 8 great kids. I love their personalities, their wit, their kindness, their talents, their uniqueness, their charity for others... and each other." So there you have it "Aine's Family" she was grateful for you and she loved each of you.