Born of goodly parents

 

Today I #GiveThanks for having been "born of goodly parents." My mother was a native German who lived through World War II there, and emigrated to Utah in 1952 where she met and married my father. He was a hard-working farmer-turned-city worker whose father had been raised in Samoa and whose mother was of Utah pioneer ancestry. Together they had two daughters, then me, then two more daughters.


I was told that after I was born, neighbors could tell my Dad had a son just by the way he walked when he came home from the hospital. He was so very proud, and looked forward to raising me and teaching me. I adored and idolized him. But we were allowed to share only 7 1/2 years together before a farm accident took him away far too soon.

My mother bravely took over as a single mother and raised her five children on a school teacher's salary. Along the way, she taught me many, many lessons involving persistence, hard work, setting and achieving goals, loving to travel and experience the world, dealing with hardship, focusing on priorities, appreciating music, and on and on. Fortunately, she lived to be 83 years old, so we shared 52 years together.
How can you "count your blessings" without being especially grateful for such a gift, having been privileged to be influenced in the most profound ways by parents willing to sacrifice and give so much to me?

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