Wisdom from the Past

My grandmother was an astounding woman. She moved, sight unseen, to the Alaskan wilderness in 1946 to join her husband who worked on the Alaska Highway Commission. They lived in a highway commission camp and she was the only woman in the camp for a full year. She arrived with their two children and a third was soon on the way. Her third child was born with a club foot and required weekly trips to Fairbanks 100 miles away, on a gravel road, in the middle of winter. But she made that trip every week and in the end his foot turned out fine because of her diligence.


Just a few of the things she taught me were: never give up, do what's right no matter how hard it is and lend a helping hand wherever/whenever you can. I think my incredible work ethic and dedicated volunteerism came directly from her, who else could inspire a small child to beg to stay at her house to do chores with her? Did I mention she now owned a dairy farm in Alaska and chores were scrubbing the milking barn and cleaning calf pens morning and night, summer and winter. I wanted to help because I loved to work, especially with her.


When I need strength I look to her memory and draw from her wisdom and her actions. I'm so lucky to have her with me always and I never stop learning from grandma. It's not always easy to do the right thing, is it? I know in my own life I have struggled mightily doing the "right" thing, usually for my children, when there were many easy alternatives. In the end I look back and think "wow that was tough but it was best for my sons at the time." 


Protecting my children is important to me, as it is to every parent, I'm sure. We are so lucky here in the United States to have, for the most part, easy access to health care, immunizations, food banks and help in many other ways. When I look at life around the world I often wish every human on this earth had it as easy as we do. One thing I love is that more children than ever have the chance to be immunized against things like pneumococcal disease. Pneumococcal disease is a bacterial disease that can cause meningitis and pneumonia. While this disease is easily preventable, it is a leading killer of children around the world. Preventing the disease through a vaccine will save millions of lives. Other vaccines being providing to children around the world will prevent measles (which STILL kills 450 people a day)and polio, now reemerging after being mostly eradicated. We should never give up trying to rid the world of dangerous diseases that rob families of their young. I'm thankful we've not given up the fight to protect the most vulnerable children.

People who have, should help people who do not have, it's how it should be and it's just one the important life lessons my grandmother taught me.


Peace and Love--