Saturday, October 22, 2016

Thoughts - October 22, 2016

“Are we being good ancestors?”
― Jonas Salk
Well...we know Dr. Salk certainly left the great legacy of the polio vaccine, but what of us? Are we good ancestors? What do I have of my own kin, those I never knew? Sometimes I get out my Great Grandmother Lyde Armstrong's autograph book from the 1870s and read what her friends wrote about and to her as she started her life after school. Marriage to Reverend Addison Barnes and the start of her family...two children and death at a young age. But she left me my Grandmother, one of the strongest and kindest influences on my life - and many others. In 1909, Grandma became a deaconess who worked at the lumber camps and train stations in West Virginia, bringing hope to the lives of many (especially the thousands of immigrants coming to work in lumber and coal, not knowing English). So what about me? Am I leaving anything that is good? Trees planted, a book with my siblings, a child who makes a big difference in his clients' lives. What else?? It is a question worth answering. - Beth Almond Ford

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