As I write this week’s blog, I’m still in full preparation mode for the sale next weekend. It’s amazing how many things have accumulated over the 25 years I’ve lived in my home.

This week’s topic is “Disaster This topic posed a bit of a challenge for me as I don’t know of any global disasters that have impacted my family. I have found from genealogy research there are often recurring themes within different family generations. These disasters result in circumstances that change family lives forever.

I can relate this to my own family history. I’ve spoken of the loss of my mother when I was a child. She had a chronic illness which became much worse around the time I turned 9 years old. My maternal great-grandmother also suffered from a chronic illness, although different from Mom. She had to be institutionalized at different times. This resulted in my grandmother and some of her siblings ending up in foster care. She never spoke of these things. I’m grateful I had her to raise me and that I was able to grow up in the same home my mom did.

My paternal grandfather lost his mother to the Spanish flu epidemic when he was 8 years old. His father moved to Michigan and remarried 7 years after my great-grandmother’s death.

I have always known my maternal grandparents lost their first child, my Aunt Violet, at birth. Recently, my research uncovered that my paternal grandparents lost their first child, an infant daughter, when she was just a couple months old.

These are just a few examples from my family. Despite, or despite these events, my family has prevailed. We are not unique. It’s a testament to our human spirit that we can overcome these “disasters”.