Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Greetings

I love our coat closet door! I always tape our Christmas cards to the door as they come in the mail. It's three fourths covered now and will probably be completely covered by Christmas day. It's so good to hear from family and friends that we love but seldom hear from. Once in a while we hear bad or sad news...yesterday we heard that a distant cousin died last February. Neil was 91 years old. I only met him once but I'll never forget him. I was working on our genealogy which took us on a trip across the country. Neil and Maxine lived in Nebraska where my grandma's family homesteaded. My grandma, as a young girl, helped drive a covered wagon across Nebraska! They finally arrived at their destination and began to develop their farm. Their first house was made of sod! Grandma and her siblings grew up, married, and raised their families. (My grandparents eventually moved to Iowa.) Neil was the son of my grandma's sister. He actually died in the same house he was born in! Jerry and I went to Nebraska in search of my roots and there we met Neil and Maxine. They took us all over the area showing us places significant to our family: farms, cemeteries, towns, etc. We'll never forget our days with Neil and Maxine. They raised and shared with us the best corn we've ever eaten! (better than Iowa corn? Now, that's debatable!) We've been exchanging Christmas cards every year since. Yesterday a copy of Neil's obituary came in Maxine's card, she knew I would want a copy for my family records. I feel so sad and yet so proud to have been a relative of Neil.
Thank You, Lord, for Neil's life. Thank You for allowing Jerry and me to go to Nebraska and get to know Neil and Maxine. I feel so sad and yet so blessed.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Anita,
I love your blog. Especially since it is telling of the old fashioned days. I got your blog site from Carole and Tim's blog. I also love cookbooks and recipes, so your site that has recipes interested me. I think this blogging thing is such fun and a blessing to keeping in touch with good friends. Do you remember us as a pastor in the East Mich. Conference. We are now in South Bend filling a staff position for the Missionary church. Before long we will be coming back to Jackson/Spring Arbor area where our girls live. It is time to retire, but we probably won't retire entirely, as the Lord's work is never done. We will keep reading and looking for your thoughts and sharing. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Love, The Husteds, Chuck and Sue

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about your distant cousin. Sounds like he lived an interesting life. It must be a really big job to stay current on all the family history.

Wow! Your grandma's story about the covered wagons in Nebraska reminds me of the Little House on the Prairie books. I loved reading those in elementary school. :)