Today was a much looked forward to day-at-home. My plan was to accomplish as much as possible on that always long to-do list.
My day started with preparing a lesson that Claude and I team teach on Sunday evening. After two hours of study, my outline was in my laptop, the quotes were ready to be printed, and a picture was ready to be printed. Something went wrong when I started to print and my laptop was hung up. Thinking I saved everything, I closed Word. Then reopened Word. Word did that lovely thing it does and offered me an emergency copy of the last documents I was working on when Word closes unexpectedly. I printed the picture. Then something else interfered and I had to close Word again. Word asked if it should save those emergency copies for when I opened Word again. I told it no as I was sure I had saved them while working on them. Alas, went I came back to Word and tried to open the documents, they were very, very incomplete. Just a little at the top of each one. Two hours of work gone. Frustration. That is what I felt. Foolish and frustrated. I have not done that in a very, very long time.
Our City Clerk sent me an eMail while I was preparing this lesson requesting pictures from Sadieville in September for the city's website. In an effort to salvage my now less-than-productive morning, I started to send those picture via eMail to Cindy three at a time. While they were loading, I would prepared for other things I wanted to do today and also cleaned up some items in my sewing room.
After completing the sending of the pictures to Cindy, Claude and I loaded some cleaning supplies in the Jeep and he took me across the creek to Sadieville proper. My next task was to clean the caboose. The last few years the Scott County Library has held 'The Polar Express' in Sadieville using our caboose as the reading room. Since today would be the last warm day for several weeks, it seemed best to clean the caboose on a warm day. Claude unlocked the doors and we opened the caboose up and I started to clean while Claude headed to City Hall to play at being Mayor a bit. That fresh air flowing through the caboose was exhilarating. My head cleared and I realized I had already prepared that lesson once so the second time typing an outline and preparing the visuals to print would probably go a lot more quickly.
My grandson started texting me so I would pause and visit with him between cleaning sprints. That was very nice.
Then my phone made its dripping noise alerting me to an eMail. This eMail was from a BJ Fisch. At least that was what the eMail address indicated. While I don't know an BJ Fisch, my mother's maiden name is Fisch. It is spelled with a 'c' in it, which is not quite the norm. Mom had a brother names Clifford who had a son named Burton. Could this be Burton Fisch? My curiosity was piqued.
The eMail from BJ Fisch said he saw some pictures on the Internet of Clifford Fisch and was wondering I had any more. Clifford Fisch was his grandfather. Pause to digest that information. You see, as one gets older, mentally we keep thinking we are still young. It is often only when we look in the mirror that we realize we aren't in our 20's anymore. Or if we sit on the floor and try to stand up. I had to process my Uncle Clifford not being the young man I remembered driving my sisters and my cousins through the woods where there were no roads in his Jeep with no top. I knew my mother was a great-grandmother when she passed. But Uncle Clifford, her brother, was, in my mind, still that young father of elementary school kids. This information meant this had to be Burton's child as Uncle Clifford's other two kids were girls and married with different last names. I realized I had not seen Burton in over 40 years. Wow!!
I sent a reply to verify if my reasoning was correct. It was. Burton's son, Clifford's grandson, found my Blog, saw some pictures of his grandfather, my Uncle Clifford, and sent me an eMail. I was so happy I was about to burst. Gratitude can't begin to explain the feelings I had for this great-nephew (I think that is correct.) whom I never met taking the initiative to send me an eMail. If he had not done that, I would never have known him.
Claude and I were married when I was 19 and he was 20. After a year of marriage and the birth of our first child, Claude was transferred to March AFB in California. I left Louisiana and would not see Burton anymore. I would see Sue and Jean, his sisters on a visit to Louisiana when my eldest daughter was around a year old. I would also see Jean another time when I visited my parents in Louisiana. That was the last contact with my mother's side of the family. Her parents died and I was not able to travel from California for their funerals. Uncle Clifford died when I was in Junior High School and Aunt Billlie also died while I lived very far away. Contact information changed and we just lost track of each other.
I ached for this loss. These cousins were lots of fun. Playing at our grandparents home in the woods was pure joy. I loved Uncle Clifford and Aunt Billie, his wife. It felt bad not to have contact information for them. Now I had a link back to them. How great is that?!?!
I sent a message to BJ and told him I was not at home. However, when I got home I would send him some pictures of our family. He was happy about that.
After cleaning that caboose, Claude took me to Wendy's for lunch. It was so very nice to sit and visit with my Big Guy on Veteran's Day. This morning I posted on Facebook pictures of him when he served in the Air Force. These picture are all without a beard or mustache. While in the Air Force, after we were married, Claude did grow a mustache. As soon as he got out of the Air Force he grew the beard. Only once since then has he shaved it off. That was as a fund-raiser at Church for the youth program. When Claude was in the Air Force he worked in the Reconnaissance Technical Squadron at Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases. The Air Force was good to us. We were poor as church mice but we managed to use the GI Bill to pay for a college degree for Claude and a VA Loan to purchase our first home. Our three children were born in Air Force hospitals. We had a steady income as we started our married life and for all those things and more, we will be eternally grateful.
As we left Wendy's, I asked Claude if he could feel the difference in the air. It just seemed more full of energy. My assumption is the coming changes in our weather were the reason. The wind was blowing, the clouds were forming, the temperature had not begun to drop the 30 degrees anticipated but you could just feel it was coming. Left me feeling more full of energy and, combined with the knowledge of my new found relative, just down-right happy.
Upon arriving home, I headed to the basement where my sewing room is located. I would spend the couple of hours eMailing pictures to BJ. It was pure joy getting those pictures loaded into eMails, typing a little explanation about them and a little history for some of them. How good it felt to share this with BJ. Family. I was able to send him pictures of his father, grandfather and grandmother, great grandfather and great grandmother, and even two great-great-grandmothers and one great-great grandfather. Family. Amazing.
At one point I received another eMail from BJ. He attached a few pictures for me. These are my cousins!! Jean, Burton and Sue. What a treasure, an absolute treasure.
Family is so important. Warts and all. A since of belonging is so important and our families offer that. Didn't finish nearly as much on that to-do list. Don't really care. My day was full of family. That is much more important. I am happy.
Thank you BJ for reaching out.
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