My mother has now been moved to a local nursing home for rehab. At least she is closer to home.
I was there today visiting her with my sister. While we were there, my niece came in to visit too. She's 6 months pregnant. I sat there for a time watching my mom, my sister and my sister's daughter talking and laughing. My niece carrying the next generation in her womb. It was a beautiful sight.
The fact that life, in it's best and worst, goes on, was not lost on me. It was there from start to finish, today, at Brookside Nursing Home. My mom, so near the end, enjoying a smile with her daughter - at the middle of her life - and grand daughter who is carrying new life with in her.
This is the way it is, isn't it? We're born, we live, we touch lives, we have families, we age, and we hope that when we're at our own end, there is a smile and the hope of new birth. That's what I saw today.
Showing posts with label generations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label generations. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Monday, February 18, 2008
Looking back
I was sorting through some more stuff tonight and came across some old papers and a booklet that my mother gave me. It was a compilation of my family history on my mother's side that was done for a family reunion some years ago. I startd reading it and got lost in what I found.
My grandparent's on my mother's side were poor farmers who lived in North Dakota but they didn't start out there. My grandfather, Stanislaus (aka Stanley) was originally born in Poland but a copy of his birth certificate states that he was of German origin. Some further delving showed that this was because the village in which he was born at the time was taken over by Germany. So, though he was full blooded Polish, he had a kind of forced dual ethnicity. He came to the United States when he was a young man and settled in the Michigan area, Hamtramick, Michigan. That's where he met my grandmother who some years earlier had herself come to the US from Poland. They met in the most traditional of ways - brought together by the good people of their church which was the social epicenter of the time. They married and for a time attempted a life in Michigan but apparently jobs were scarse for immigrants then and my grandfather, being a farmer by nature, had a difficult time securing work to support his wife. The priest at their church had at some point purchased some land in Minto, ND but the problem was that in order for him to keep the land he had to have someone on it. Naturally, he couldn't just up and leave his church so he asked my grandfather to go and farm this land. This all happened in the early 1800's so imagine the fear and uncertainty both my grandfather and grandmother must have felt to just pack up and leave their families and go somewhere they had never been nor did they know anyone who was there. But they did it. They went to Minto, started farming and stayed there for almost the rest of their lives.
The house they lived in was the one my mother was born in. It had one source of heat on the main floor and a hole cut in the ceiling so it could rise the two bedrooms up stairs. It had no indoor plumbing. The bathtub was on the back porch and there was no running water but rather had a pump that was fixed inside the kitchen so they could get fresh water without going outside. Behind the house my grandfather built a "summer kitchen" so that during the hottest months my grandmother could cook out there and not make the house hotter than it already was. My grandparents started their family there having four girls which was probably much to my grandfather's chagrin but my mom and her sisters learned to work the land as well as any boys would have done. It was a hard life but they managed to make a living - enough to see all but one of their girls go to college.
My grandmother died on that farm. She lived a long, good life. My grandfather lived there - without the plumbing or adequate heat - until he was quite old and could no longer take care of himself. He later moved to Kenosha with my mother and father where he lived until his death just a few months before my birth. I never knew him.
My mom's sister Sophie and her husbnad Morris stayed on that farm. They had 6 kids. Sophie died young from a brain aneurism. She was always having headaches and her doctor at the time was treating her for "nerves". At that time, there was no such thing as a CTScan. Morris continued to live on the farm and raise the kids. They all grew up and moved off with families of their own. Morris died on the farm at a ripe old age.
The farm house remained there for many years and the land remained in the family but over time, without anyone living there, it fell into neglect and vandalism and eventually had to be torn down.
My father's family was equally as interesting and hard working. My grandfather on my father's side came from Cork, Ireland and ended up in Park River, ND. Again, he was a farmer. My grandmother on my mother's side was born in the US. She was a real go getter. At 16 she was riding a short leg of the pony express delivering mail through Indian territory in the Dakotas. They eventually moved into town, off the farm and my grandfather was elected Sheriff. I'm not sure where they met or married. They also had a large family - 6 kids in all. Two did not live through their childhood. My father and two of his brothers all fell ill with influenza. When my father's fever broke and he became conscious both of his brothers had already been buried. He never knew they had died or how close he was to meeting his own end.
I guess all of this just confirms what I have always believed about my family. We're not rich, no great business minds here, no unknown stores of wealth or even knowledge. But what we are is hard working, family oriented stock. We do what needs to be done so that we can have a life and through it all we love each other deeply, argue loudly, forgive consistently and know that no matter what, we will always be there for each other.
Most people who know my fmaily always wonder how it is that we can stand to spend so much time with each other. The truth is...we wouldn't have it any other way.
My grandparent's on my mother's side were poor farmers who lived in North Dakota but they didn't start out there. My grandfather, Stanislaus (aka Stanley) was originally born in Poland but a copy of his birth certificate states that he was of German origin. Some further delving showed that this was because the village in which he was born at the time was taken over by Germany. So, though he was full blooded Polish, he had a kind of forced dual ethnicity. He came to the United States when he was a young man and settled in the Michigan area, Hamtramick, Michigan. That's where he met my grandmother who some years earlier had herself come to the US from Poland. They met in the most traditional of ways - brought together by the good people of their church which was the social epicenter of the time. They married and for a time attempted a life in Michigan but apparently jobs were scarse for immigrants then and my grandfather, being a farmer by nature, had a difficult time securing work to support his wife. The priest at their church had at some point purchased some land in Minto, ND but the problem was that in order for him to keep the land he had to have someone on it. Naturally, he couldn't just up and leave his church so he asked my grandfather to go and farm this land. This all happened in the early 1800's so imagine the fear and uncertainty both my grandfather and grandmother must have felt to just pack up and leave their families and go somewhere they had never been nor did they know anyone who was there. But they did it. They went to Minto, started farming and stayed there for almost the rest of their lives.
The house they lived in was the one my mother was born in. It had one source of heat on the main floor and a hole cut in the ceiling so it could rise the two bedrooms up stairs. It had no indoor plumbing. The bathtub was on the back porch and there was no running water but rather had a pump that was fixed inside the kitchen so they could get fresh water without going outside. Behind the house my grandfather built a "summer kitchen" so that during the hottest months my grandmother could cook out there and not make the house hotter than it already was. My grandparents started their family there having four girls which was probably much to my grandfather's chagrin but my mom and her sisters learned to work the land as well as any boys would have done. It was a hard life but they managed to make a living - enough to see all but one of their girls go to college.
My grandmother died on that farm. She lived a long, good life. My grandfather lived there - without the plumbing or adequate heat - until he was quite old and could no longer take care of himself. He later moved to Kenosha with my mother and father where he lived until his death just a few months before my birth. I never knew him.
My mom's sister Sophie and her husbnad Morris stayed on that farm. They had 6 kids. Sophie died young from a brain aneurism. She was always having headaches and her doctor at the time was treating her for "nerves". At that time, there was no such thing as a CTScan. Morris continued to live on the farm and raise the kids. They all grew up and moved off with families of their own. Morris died on the farm at a ripe old age.
The farm house remained there for many years and the land remained in the family but over time, without anyone living there, it fell into neglect and vandalism and eventually had to be torn down.
My father's family was equally as interesting and hard working. My grandfather on my father's side came from Cork, Ireland and ended up in Park River, ND. Again, he was a farmer. My grandmother on my mother's side was born in the US. She was a real go getter. At 16 she was riding a short leg of the pony express delivering mail through Indian territory in the Dakotas. They eventually moved into town, off the farm and my grandfather was elected Sheriff. I'm not sure where they met or married. They also had a large family - 6 kids in all. Two did not live through their childhood. My father and two of his brothers all fell ill with influenza. When my father's fever broke and he became conscious both of his brothers had already been buried. He never knew they had died or how close he was to meeting his own end.
I guess all of this just confirms what I have always believed about my family. We're not rich, no great business minds here, no unknown stores of wealth or even knowledge. But what we are is hard working, family oriented stock. We do what needs to be done so that we can have a life and through it all we love each other deeply, argue loudly, forgive consistently and know that no matter what, we will always be there for each other.
Most people who know my fmaily always wonder how it is that we can stand to spend so much time with each other. The truth is...we wouldn't have it any other way.
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