Monday Mood: Remembering my Grandmother

My father's mother was born in England and crossed the Atlantic twice in the early years of the last century.  Her second crossing was months after the Titanic disaster.  That experienced stayed with her. The very real fear, and being grateful that she and her family where not on the Titanic.  Thankfulness and gratefulness stuck with her.  

Her family left England just a few years before World War I. She heard about the horrors of war from a safe distance. Her father was working on water and sanitation projects, work that was considered essential and hence not at risk of being drafted.  She was grateful for her nuclear family being spared the horrors of that War.  

She married by grandfather, almost 100 years ago, my father was born little more than a year later, and then the stock market crashed. My grandfather worked for Ford, and at times was down to a couple of days a week, but was never unemployed. They raised a huge garden, my grandfather kept bees. They always had food on the table. They were renting a home from a bank. A good honey crop yielded a couple of hundred dollars for a downpayment, and they bought the house during the depth of the depression, for mortgage payments that were less than they were paying in rent. They took in family members who lost homes in foreclosure. She was forever grateful that they kept a roof over their heads and food on the table and were able to help the extended family.  

During World War II, family from England came to live with them, escaping the bombing.  Sally was school age, Edith (little Aunt Edith - she was about 5 feet tall and never over 100 pounds) was one of her father's sisters, Bob was an uncle, who died of alcoholism before I was born. All three of them stayed. Everyone worked during the war. My grandmother enjoyed her years in an office at a machine shop, and graciously left when the man she had replaced returned from the war. My father was a teenager, he was drafted near the end of the war, and never left the country. If he had been two years older, he would have been cannon fodder, and she knew that. She was proud to be a Blue Star mother, and forever grateful that the were not a Gold Star family.  She was grateful that they contributed their share to the war effort, and that our family was spared the worst of the war.  

All of this reminds me to be grateful, to be thankful for the good fortune of my life. 

The photos above were taken on this spring's cruise, as the ship passed over the wreck of the Titanic. The personal connection - how the disaster shaped my grandmother was on my mind that day. I am glad we visited there. My grandmother considered the site a gravesite, that should be left undisturbed. When the wreck was discovered, she and I talked about this, I think she shared thoughts and feelings she had kept bottled up for decades.  She was right in so many ways.  She was and remains a major influence in my life. 

This Monday finds me thankful and grateful.