nostalgic saturday
Jun 14th, 2008 by indigo-daisy
This picture is of my parents right after they moved in their first real house. I say real house as we lived in a trailer home before we moved here and at five years old I never thought of a trailer home as being a real house.
Our trailer burnt to the ground on November 11, 1964 and my parents lost everything including a beautiful baby daughter who was only eight months old. Her name was Rebbecca Louise. My other sister who was two and I survived.
As painful as it was for my parents, they were able to pick up the pieces and go on with their life, loving each other every minute along the way. My mom could have fallen apart in her deep despair of losing a child. But she didn’t, she had two other daughters to care for and she never gave up on us.
Right after it happened I remember clearly the paramedics giving tranquilizers to my mom as she had become hysterical. I remember the neighbors telling me that Becky had died and I had just accepted it without question. My dad seemed to hold back his pain and was the pillar of strength for my mom. I don’t remember ever seeing dad cry, however, at only 28 years old, just starting out with a young wife and family, the pain of losing both a child and his home must have been overwhelming. To this day, I don’t know how they ever made it through it, other than their deep love for each other and a strong faith that God would guide them.
Soon after, they had another daughter, and several years later a surprise daughter. We are all married now, resulting in nine grandchildren.
Through the years we have learned from them to be loving, compassionate and strong and we all found husbands with very much the same qualities, passing these same qualities on to our children.
This August, will be their 50th wedding anniversary and we all have so much to be thankful for.
Thanks to Abbey for Nostalgic Saturday .
What a special pair your parents are … I often think I couldnt cope if something happened to either of my children, but amazingly we do…my mother-in-law lost a child and it was her faith that kept her going, like your mums…
You are lucky to have such role models, and as you say have picked partners with the same strength. What a legacy they have both left.
They sound like such strong beautiful people … and 50 years married, that is awesome and inspriational in itself… are you going to celebrate?
Thats an awesome memory to share Indigo, thank you…x
Thank you Abbey, yes we will be going home this summer for a family reunion to celebrate. I am really looking forward to it as I have not seen them in several years.
what a story.
it’s amazing how inspiring strong people can be.
Oh my goodness, I was starting to tear-up reading about their losses. But that’s an amazing tribute & I think it’s wonderful that they’ve remained together for so long.
Sadly, in my line of work, I see couples, no matter how great their marriage was at the time, when they’ve lost a child, the marriage just seems to crumble.
Have safe travels when you go for your visit… look forward to reading about the trip upon your return.
That is an amazing and bittersweet story. The house I helped build and spent the second half of my childhood in burned to the ground, too. My mohter got my brother, who was just home from getting his foot put in a cast, out just before the house went up in a fireball. None of the family died, thankfully, but they lost several pets and everything they owned. I can’t imagine how much harder it would be with the loss of a child.