User:Achates1

It’s pretty interesting to look back at family history a bit to see why you are what you are.

My Mom’s Side
My mother’s parents met on a blind date in Paris during World War II. He was an officer, she a nurse. A mutual friend set them up, and the rest is history. It’s a really beautiful story, and it gets better.

My grandmother has a great story as well. Her mother was part of the Irish upper class living in England who migrated to New England. This society was extremely proper and “upper crust.” While in America, she fell in love with an actor. This caused my great-grandmother to be disowned by her family. Sadly, he died from cirrhosis and she died from diphtheria, leaving several children as orphans. All of the children were split up and sent to different people. My grandmother was sent to live with her father’s brother and his wife. They had no children and sent her to a Catholic parochial boarding school. This meant that my grandmother’s two major influences were upper crust New England society and pre-Vatican II Catholicism. She later entered the Women’s Army Corps as a nurse after going to nurse’s training.

My grandfather’s family came over to America from Italy. They lived in large Italian community in West Virginia, where they worked in coalmines. Soon, my great-grandfather and his brothers started a general store. It was very difficult to keep up – they even received mob threats because they wouldn’t give the mafia part of the profits. My great-grandfather worked incredibly hard, as he desired to give his children a better life. My grandfather learned that military academies were a free education. He talked to his father, and they decided to strive for it. They found out that the best way of doing that was to go to a private school. My great-grandfather pulled double shifts in the coalmines to be able to pay for it while my grandfather worked extremely hard to make the grade. The time came to get an appointment from a senator, so my great-grandfather took my grandfather to Washington, D.C. On the way up, my great-grandfather stopped on the side of the road and picked some rhododendrons (the West Virginia state flower) for the secretary, much to the chagrin of my grandfather. When they presented them to the secretary, she was overjoyed and said she hadn’t seen rhododendrons since she had left home. Anyway, all of their hard work paid off, and my grandfather became the first young man from his town to go to West Pointe, as well as the first member of his family to graduate from high school and go to college.

My mother was born in Washington, D.C. right after World War II. She was the second child of my grandparents. She lived a very interesting life as a child of an army colonel. She spent the first part of her high school days Alabama and then graduated from high school in London. She then decided to go back to the States for college and went to West Virginia University.

My Dad’s Side
My grandfather saw my grandmother walking down the street one day and said, “That’s the girl for me!” Sweetly enough, he was a euphonium player and she played the piano. She began to accompany him at his solo performances. They fell in love and were married at Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite National Park.

My grandmother descends from the English families who came over on the Mayflower. Somehow they ended up in Humboldt, CA. She was born in 1925 in Crow's Landing, CA.

My grandfather’s parents were part of a major Scandinavian immigration from Sweden after the turn of the 20th century. They settled in Minnesota and then moved west through Washington State and North Dakota. It was on this journey that my grandfather born; in 1923 in Enumclaw, WA. He is the youngest of eight children. Eventually, his whole family settled in the San Joaquin Valley in CA.

They ended up having three boys (my dad was the youngest) and adopting two little girls. They lived a quiet life in Tuolumne County, and my dad became the classic Northern California boy.

One morning on a camping trip, my grandmother woke up very ill. It was discovered that she had lupus. This would profoundly affect the rest of her life and the lives of her family.

My father decided that he was cut out for the armed services. The call of duty was upon him, so he decided in 8th grade that he was going to apply for the Air Force Academy. He started writing his senator, working on his grades, and playing sports. His efforts were successful, and he entered the Academy in 1972.

Me
While my dad was at the academy, he became friends with a man who would later become my uncle. My dad talked to his friend’s sister over the phone and didn’t think much of it. After he graduated, he was doing pilot training and stopped into Atlanta to meet her while she was working on her master’s at the University of Georgia. Then in February of 1979, they fell in love, and by the end of that year they were married.

Three years later, my sister was born in Okinawa, Japan. She would later become my best friend.

I was born in Valdosta, GA in 1986. Military life meant that I moved around a lot as a kid. From Valdosta, we moved to Washington, D.C., then back to Valdosta, then on to San Antonio, Texas. My dad retired from the Air Force there, which caused us to move to Orlando, Florida.

I am currently a university student and would describe myself as a writer/musician/theologian. My passions include music (I'm a percussionist) and theology (I'm a Christian). I hope to graduate with a degree in Religion and then go to seminary to pursue a Masters in Divinity. From there, I may work toward a Ph.D. I haven't decided how long I will stay in the academic world. Throughout my life, I would like to be a pastor, a missionary, a teacher, a writer, and perhaps a translator of the Bible.

Looking at my family history helps me to learn a lot about myself, particularly with regard to religion and work ethic. I have a history of Catholics and Calvinists, of farmers and coalminers, and it really explains a lot about myself. I feel I have been blessed with the same faith and work ethic that helped my great-grandparents persevere throughout the difficult life of immigration.