No Worries!




Worry; apprehension, fear, anxiety, hesitation, concern or distress.  Worry refers to thoughts and emotions of a negative nature to avoid anticipated potential threats.  


When I first began doing family history work, I was worried and concerned that maybe I might upset someone by asking too many questions about their relative.  I wanted to be respectful, but I also wanted the information and stories about their parent, grandparent or sibling.  The closer the relative the more concerned I was about this.  Surely, I didn’t want to upset a child, who had years earlier lost a parent.    I also didn’t want to make anyone cry!  My goal was to gather information and stories from the people closest to the deceased.  
In the beginning, I was careful with my questions and careful when directing conversations about those who had passed.  I didn’t want sadness and I definitely didn’t want to make anyone to cry.
After my husband passed away I realized two things; it is an honor to remember the deceased and secondly because someone cries doesn’t mean it is sadness.
I learned it is an honor to remember and recount the stories that make up a deceased one’s life.  It is honoring their memory to pass forward their stories and their impact on our lives.  Every time we mention a deceased person’s name, they live on in our memories and in our stories.
I will never forget talking to Kathleen Fletcher (153) about her grandfather; Hugh “Chappy” Roberts (26).  You could feel the love she felt for him.  Her words spoke about him in a loving manner, but outside of her words, you could feel her heart explode with love and admiration for her sweet grandfather.  Just listening to Kathleen I was able to understand Hugh” Chappy” Roberts  in a manner that no document, source, newspaper article, certificate or letter could ever convey.  
Crying or tears don’t represent sadness, but rather love; love for that person, love when remembering the sweet memories and love when recounting how their lives touched us and our own lives.  None of the people I have spoken to have ever cried.  None of them have even shed a tear.  Everyone I have met has been happy to share stories and memories of their loved ones.  And, I have had no worries…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walking Where They Walked: Park Hotel

Image
Park Hotel, Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 2013, RR&B 19 Elk Street, Rock Springs, Sweetwater, Wyoming The Park Hotel opened in 1914 and was the hub of Western Wyoming until the late 1950’s. It was the largest and most modern hotel in the city. Advertisements boasted of hot and cold water in each of its 38 rooms, twenty of which had private baths and toilets. The fourth floor was added in the 1920’s. The Park Hotel catered to commercial men and automobile tourists traveling the Lincoln Highway. The hotel had a boisterous barroom and a sedate restaurant with sparking white table cloths. Rock Springs Miner, 30 January 1914, page 1, Wyoming Newspaper Project online. One memory of the Park Hotel, is related by Thomas P. Cullen, “One summer afternoon while walking up Elk Street toward the C Street Crossing, my attention was drawn to the small crowd assembled near the north end of the Park Hotel. A slight man, of short stature, stood rolling up his pantlegs
Read more

What is a mortcloth?

A mortcloth, or pall, is a funeral cloth used to cover a coffin in the funeral ceremony or the deceased prior to burial.   The deceased’s family usually rented a mortcloth from the local church and after each use, the fabric was washed and readied for use again.   The word comes from the Latin word “pallium” meaning cloak. The Mortcloth case of 1792 begins:   “ For many centuries, and probably up to the 20th, the Church of Scotland was the sole supplier of mortcloths.   As the name would suggest, they were cloths used to cover the dead prior to burial, and after use, were washed ready for rehire. The Church hired these for a few pence, or in some cases loaned out these cloths, until the time of the funeral. The revenue raised by this service, typically around £40 pa, was distributed to the poor of the parish at frequent intervals.”   In the late 1780’s a local Society of Colliers decided to purchase and rent out their own mortcloths preventing the local church from making re
Read more

Bagillt, Flintshire, Wales

Image
Bagillt, Flintshire, Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagillt) The parish of Bagillt was gazetted on 23 May 1844, having been created from the townships of Bagillt Fawr, Bagillt Fechan, Coleshill Fawr and Coleshill Fechan, which were formerly in the parish of Holywell. It is located in the Northern part of Wales. (Genuki, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/FLN/Bagillt/index.html)   The 1841 British Census finds Margaret(2) Roberts, aged four years living with her parents and siblings in Bagillt, Flintshire, Wales. In 1831, J. Poole penned: "Bagillt is a bustling place, and will continue so, as long as her smelting and coal works go on in their present prosperous state. Well conducted boats go from this place to Chester every day; with a favorable wind, these little barks make the 17 or 18 miles in little more than two hours."   (J. Poole, Gleanings of the histories of Holywell, Flint, St. Asaph and Rhuddlan, 1831 as qtd.  in http://www.genuki.org.uk/
Read more