By Joe Walker
Can you claim family if you don’t really know them?
My Grandmother is one of the most important persons to ever touch my life. I’ve spent more time with her than I can remember. To this day she is as much a part of my life as she was during my upbringing. Besides whom I’ve seen before me all these years, I’m only now learning just who she is. I know my Grandma, of course; yet only recently did I begin to really know her.
I know about her parents – my great grandmother and great grandfather, but I’ve just learned in the last two weeks what type of parents they were. I’ve visited the town and area where my Grandma was raised, never knowing until now what she meant to the place: What lessons she learned, people she dealt with, and why she saw things in life a certain way, choosing to teach only what she thought important to her one-day-writer Grandson.
She is the youngest of fourteen brothers and sisters, a farm-raised family who went to town together every Sunday for church and to feed the needy – be they Black or White. I love my Grandma’s cooking, though she is physically unable to do it anymore. Her homemade rolls are my favorite. But I just learned from the moment she was old enough to understand the use of her hands, she had A JOB making pastry and breads. And each of her siblings had jobs. I know these people, but I didn’t know them.
My Grandma grew up in social confusion and racism, but never had an ill feeling or thing to say about her Grandson – whom she kept very close to her Baptist side since his birth – beginning his scholastic career one of four Black children in a majority White, Lutheran private school. Only now do I understand.
There is a rich history, a great story tied to my Grandmother. To learn it is better than anything a textbook or novel could contain. The same goes for each member of my family, still living or passed. Some of the greatest stories in American history are dangled on my family tree. The same applies to you.
New Resolution #19: Get to know your family, and learn some personal history.
