November 11, 2002

Birthday wishes

Today is November 11, 1918. It's your 26th birthday; the American presence in the "War to End All Wars" has affected you greatly; your younger brother has been fighting with the AEF in France. Only later will you learn that he was gassed in the trenches there, a condition which will affect his life for the next 60 years. Imagine the emotions you feel knowing the war is over, and that life may return to what it had been pre-1914. You are still 8 years away from the birth of your first child; your first husband will die shortly after the birth of your second. You will live through the Great Depression, working as an assistant to a busy doctors' office in Phoenix. You will have to take in boarders to make ends meet after your second husband dies. Your first child will marry a Navy officer shortly after World War II ends; your second will fight as a Marine in Korea. In 1959 your daughter will persuade you to move in with her own family, now expanded by a 9-year-old grandson. Within a year that family will add a second grandchild, this an adopted daughter, who will think of you as her best friend. You will move many times after joining your daughter's family, from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. to Guam and finally to Hawai'i. You will undergo treatment for breast cancer while in Los Angeles, including mastectomy. While in Washington, you will take up painting. By the time you move to Guam, you will be a good amateur artist, and will revel in painting island scenes. These paintings will hang in your daughter's home for the remainder of your life and beyond. All the while, you will maintain a cheerfulness and a puckish good humor, brightening the lives of your family and their friends until the day you move on to a well-earned reward in 1979. Had you lived, today would be your 110th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Grang.

Posted by Linkmeister at November 11, 2002 12:27 PM
Comments

sounds like a tremendous life.

Posted by: kd at November 11, 2002 10:01 PM

Wow. What a life. How lucky you are to have been able to share it and remember it. Your fondness for her is evident.

Happy Birthday to her.

Posted by: Skatemom at November 12, 2002 07:10 AM

You write so well, you're making me cry....
What an original lady she was...!

Posted by: toxiclabrat at November 12, 2002 09:21 AM

I remember the argument we had about time zones; I couldn't explain it well, so she didn't get it in the context we were talking about. I think I was 17 at the time.

Posted by: Linkmeister at November 13, 2002 04:20 PM