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Thanksgiving, As In Gratitude...

Started by luise.volta, November 12, 2010, 08:51:28 AM

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kathleen

Thanksgiving Day

This week in the mail I received the historical sheet on my grandparents.  My aunt and I worked hard on this with the National Park Service.  They  now are enshrined forever.  It was a marvelous day to receive the brochure.  I only wish my grandmother could see it.

I am so grateful for my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and my paternal grandmother.  I didn't know my paternal grandfather, because he was killed by a drunk driver when my father was ten years old, but I am grateful for the photos and memories passed down of him; according to all, he was an absolutely wonderful person. 

Kathleen

kathleen

Rose,

I love your statement that the documents "brought your grandparents to life."

My grandfather was stationed in New York harbor during World War II, escaping a marriage his father wanted to arrange back on a midwestern farm.  He met my grandmother in New York; she was very beautiful and fashionable and ahead of her times, working in a telegraph office.  They fell completely in love.  Their lives were not easy raising seven kids during the Depression after the war in the midwest.

After my mother died, my aunt began sending me documents and among them was a menu from a Thanksgiving dinner at the New York military site in 1918.  I went to visit the New York island, now a National Monument, and began talking to a park ranger, who was keenly interested in the menu.  I sent him a xerox of it and then my aunt turned up yet another menu from a second year.  My grandparents attended this dinner together. Then six historians did a conference call with my elderly aunt, to find out more about Grandpa's service and what he had said to her while she was growing up. My aunt then donated her menu to the historic site; it is in good condition but was so valuable to the Park Service that they had it transported via government mail.  We then learned that of 1,5000 men who served in the company, our document, the menu, was the only one that has survived from any one of them. It is the only current link to any of all those men who served!!!!!!!!   It is historically very important because it contains names of others in the company serving those years, and now the historians have something to work with in terms of possibly contacting family members like us, hopefully to obtain more oral histories and even documents.

My grandfather, a crack mechanic who could "fix anything," according to my aunt, was ashamed that he never went overseas during the War.  But the historians have set things right: the military site protected the vital harbors of both New York and Washington, and his skills were needed to repair machines and armaments that went back overseas. That is why he never served in Europe. He was in fact extremely important, and since he served four years, he produced a tremendous amount of repairs to absolutely essential war machinery.

The historians have memorialized my grandparents in a full-page, single-spaced, double-sided "brochure" complete with a beautiful photo of them sitting together in Central Park on a big rock.  Grandpa is in full uniform and has his arm around Grandma, in her stylish dress, pretty high heeled shoes and big hat.  It is so lovely to know them in this way.  I cried for twenty straight minutes when I got the "brochure" last week, it is so beautiful, and I immediately knew how happy my grandmother would have been to see it.  The feelings on receiving this and seeing my grandparents honored in this way are indescribable.  It was like experiencing time travel.

I cannot imagine my childhood and adult life without the joy of knowing these two wonderful people.  Mother allowed me full access and we were at their house at least once a week.  We lived with them when I was first born.  How poor my life would have been without them.  Thank you again and again, Mother, for including your parents so fully in my life.

The island also is starting a museum and when it opens, Grandma, Grandpa, their photo and their story, along with the menu, will be under glass for all visitors to this National Historic Monument to see.  My husband says it's giving him goosebumps.

What really lights my imagination, also, is how these two documents survived nine decades of travel and moves from New York City to the midwest, from house to house, until my aunt, who saved everything after my grandparents died, stuck them in a box, never dreaming of their significance.  How in the world did they survive?  If they had arrived in a bottle that crossed seven oceans I could not be more astonished.

I still have the second menu in our safe.  I am considering donating it also to the Park Service for safekeeping.  I have to think about this carefully.
It is the loveliest thing to take it out and look at it.  I don't know yet if my boys (the two that are in our lives) will want it.  The son who has abandoned his family will probably never even know about it, although my DIL would be keenly interested in any monetary value.  My youngest son saw the "brochure" yesterday and was absolutely blown away.  He kept exclaiming, "Wow, wow, wow!"  It has given him great pride in the great grandparents he never knew.  It has caused me to experience fully exactly how much children who cut off their families miss.  But it has made me even more grateful for my grandparents in my life.

Thanks for writing, Rose, and I would love to hear more about your grandparents. What documents do you have?  I am sorry you did not get to see them very much growing up, but they will always live in your heart.

Kathleen


LaurieS

Thanksgiving is over for another year and part of me is grateful. We decided that while I'm pretty good at putting out this spread, unless the kids will be home next year we are  going to bypass and annual people stuffing and do something more 'fun'.

I'm also grateful that I had enough wine in me to not really feel the burned knuckle I got when pulling out the turkey... maybe I got the burned knuckle because I  had enough wine in me..

By 11:00am we had opened the bottle of wine, broke out the cheese and veggie trays, 30 minutes later I didn't care if I ate any turkey as I was ready to move onto the desert table.  Maybe that is how it should be approached.  Hope everyone had a good day.. I'm tired now and have this subdivision party happening at my house a week from tomorrow.. back to it.. laters...

Pen

Kathleen and Rose799, I'm fascinated by family stories. Thank you for sharing. Kathleen, I'm so happy for you and your family to have found such wonderful documentation about your ancestors and to have it enshrined for all of us at the Park. I've done some family research of my own which I won't discuss in detail here, and it literally makes me shiver when I discover something in an unexpected way. Have either of you had your DNA done? I'm eager but don't know how to proceed - some companies are not as professional/scientific as others, I've heard.

Laurie, so glad you survived Thanksgiving. I didn't open the wine early but perhaps I should have since I was forgetful and clumsy anyway. It all turned out fine and I, too, am glad it's over. If I can get out of it next year I will - perhaps we should start planning now.
Respect ... is appreciation of the separateness of the other person, of the ways in which he or she is unique.
-- Annie Gottlieb

Barbie

Hello ladies. I'm also fascinated by family stories. I dug up some information on my great grandfather a few years ago and a picture of him, I've also found some cousins living abroad that I didn't know and we stay in contact via facebook and I made copies of all the documents to give to each of my children, well, won't you know it, my DIL said that I was selfish and only interested in things about myself. I explained to DS that I gave him copies just in case he was interested and also so that he could tell his children about their ancestors, that they were just copies so if he didn't want them he could throw them away.

Faithlooksup

Hi Everyone!!!   And I will be Grateful when I understand how to use this site.  I am new...I made a posting this morning and now I cannot find it to see if I have any comments and replies...HELP...

Faithlooksup

Now I am grateful for everyone and everything that touches my Heart, Thank You Anna....