Story

Grandma Gorman,

and her beloved, Walter

Grandpa Bob and his beautiful wife,

my Grandma

Last night I was chatting with a friend, asking how their family ended up in the geographical location they are at right now; why they moved, if they're glad they moved; if they desire to return home, and similar questions.

In 2006 I was part of a home school cooperative. My English teacher, Mrs. Bolin, assigned us students the task to find someone in our family who was a military vet. My Grandpa Bob is a Korean War veteran. He was the only person who volunteered to participate in a secret mission. Unbeknown to him, the mission included him recording the nuclear bomb testing, on the Bikini Islands. He is now one of the few men who was contaminated by the nuclear power, and is still alive today to tell the story of those men who risked their lives to perfect nuclear weapons of war.

During our family trip back from Ohio, for my aunts funeral, we visited my adopted-great-Grandma Gorman. Grandma loves stories! She loves telling stories of growing up on the farm, in America, during a time when wagons were still popular and cars were for the wealthy. Over dinner, she began communicating to us what it was like traveling from Kansas to Chicago in a horse and wagon...
Her story was utterly captivating!

I am continually awed by the compelling beauty of individuals stories: how they got to the place they are today.

My friends story is so fascinating because their place of origin is so different from my own. Our cultures are so opposite, in so many ways!

My grandfathers story is captivating because he lived through a things that most people haven't; he lived through times, when others, who experienced that life with him, have now passed on because of the danger in those situations.
There are so many lessons to be learned from his life-story!

My great-grandmother's story is utterly beautiful because she grew up when America was still a baby. Family was deeply valued and innocence a normality, instead of weird (as it is today).
She takes me back into a place where my family, as it is known today, was just beginning!

Her speech of life takes me back into a history where 1/4 of my family was living in German Town Wisconsin, milking cows, making cheese and speaking German. Through her words, she takes me into places where 1/8 of my heritage is making their home in the Appalachian Mountains, striving to build a home for their children, who are my great-grandparents, despite the hardships and struggling against the extremities of the mountains, in a new and fresh country!

And the other 5/8 of my family? Where were they? What were they doing?

Honestly, I don't even know.

My hope, for this year, is to dig a little deeper, discover, even more, the stories of my Grandma Gorman's life, and my Grandpa Bob's history. To have the opportunities to ask my mothers father what and who his parents were - who his great-grandparents were... To inquire as to who my grandmother's family was, what they were like, where they lived, and where they were from... to seek and receive answers about my heritage - who these people are who make my story mine.

God richly bless and keep,
as you continue your story of life,
and create a history for your children,
grandchildren,
and great-grandchildren!