What Do I Appreciate About My Parents/Ancestors?

A little I know and share about my ancestors...

I appreciate that they did the best they could.

I know some stories about them.

I'm grateful to my parents, Kenneth and Philippa, for telling me what they knew about them. 

I'm grateful too to seldom seen uncles and aunts for sharing family stories.

My Mother's mother, Ethel, the grandmother I knew, was a stoic figure.

She lived in Cape Town.  I saw her infrequently.

She died when I was 16.

My mother's father, Richard, died when she was 7.

She and her three older sisters, Dorothy, Marjorie and Ruth, were raised by their widowed mother.

My father's father, Kenneth, died when he was 11.

His mother, Winifred, died when he was 17.

His two older sisters, Pixie and Betty, left school to support him so that he could finish school.

When my Dad was 17 the second World War broke out.

His eldest sister Pixie's either boyfriend or husband by that time, Uncle Paul, mentored him into joining the South African Navy. 

My parents married in 1943, during the war.

I was born in  Cape Town in 1945, at the end of the Second World War.

I am the eldest of their five children.

A little about my parents...

My father and mother also did the best they could...

I knew they loved me.

My Dad enjoyed a successful career in the motor industry and then moved into administration leadership in the newly established Church offices in South Africa.

I loved my Dad.

He was able to communicate with me in ways that were meaningful to me.

Three valuable things I learn from him: dutifulness, excellence and enjoying our country.

My mother was a crusading stay-at-home Mom.

She was an active member of the communities we lived in.

My Mom and I saw many things differently.

Three valuable things I learnt from her: loyalty, patriotism and the complexities of right and wrong.

And - What legacy am I building every day?

Oh my...

I don't know...

I know what I hope I am building.

I hope my husband knows I love him and I try to be a help meet for him.

I hope my children know that I love them enough to loosen the apron strings.  

I love them unconditionally - though I might not like all the decisions they make.

I hope they know I look for the good in them.

I hope they know I respect them and cheer them on.

And I respect their agency to live their lives as they choose.

I hope they know I did the best I could when I was raising them.

I hope they know I enjoy my every-day life, and when it's hard, that I find something to enjoy every day.

I hope they know that I'm still doing the best I can.

I hope my grandchildren and great-grandchildren also know these things about me.

I hope this is a legacy they find useful to them as they proceed with their lives.

And - What do you appreciate about your parents and ancestors?

What legacy are you building every day?