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Wander project the people that helped along the way – and turkey buzzards!

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I lost my father’s father when I was 11. I know that I have a few scattered memories of him from before the start of the family history project. But seeing and now remembering the moments he (my father’s father) was around, I have so many more memories. I loved and love both my grandfathers. I was fortunate to be born into a family that was so amazing. I am in awe of my mother. She dedicated her life to taking care of women and women’s health issues, and then when she retired, she became the world’s greatest grandmother. My kids have all slept their entire lives with a quilt made by my mother, their grandmother. I can’t tell you how valuable those quilts are, except they are always on their beds!

I know my children have memories of my dad. But I make sure every day I remind them of how amazing their grandmothers and grandfathers were and are. They, the twins, and my daughter lost their first grandparents a lot younger than I was.  My daughter was 12, and the twins were around 7 when my wife’s mother passed away. They were two years old when my wife’s father passed. I often talk about the things the two of them gave the twins so that they will remember them. I also write these blogs and have included them in the folder where the pictures from my father and his father are scanned. I want to make sure that the legacy is both a physical object (Hard drive) and lots of happy memories.

So I will end today with a happy memory of my mother. My mother, like her father, used to talk to other drivers when she was driving. Her favorite phrase for a driver that cut her off was calling them a “turkey buzzard.” Mom drove all around southern Indiana for her job (look at a map, there are three highways in Southern Indiana, 3, and she drove everywhere). One day though, I don’t remember what I did, but I did something and was informed by my mother that I, as well as the driver that had cut her off, was a Turkey Buzzard. I don’t remember what I did. I am sure my mother does. But I do remember being called a Turkey Buzzard. FYI, my grandfather called people that cut him off in the car Cement Heads!

This work is Copyright DocAndersen. Any resemblance to people real or fictional in this piece is accidental (unless explicitly mentioned by name.)

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Written by DocAndersen

One fan, One team and a long time dream Go Cubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  1. Wonderful photos and memories. I never met my father’s parents they remained in Latvia and eventually passed away but I do remember hearing that for a while my father wrote to his mother. I never got to meet my mother’s father he was shot by the Russians while in the army. The only grandparent I met and who lived with us was my mother’s mother.

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    • on my wife’s side (she is adopted) her biological mother was in the German camps. She (my wife) literally has no aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents left on either side. She has 2nd cousins left but nothing closer than that.

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