This summer, in general, has had a lot of family in it. I never realized, in the last many months that I’ve been away, how much I really miss when I’m gone. Weddings and new babies and big changes. And even the old things--like the names and stories of my ancestors in the cemeteries next to old Mennonite churches in Lancaster--are new things to me this summer. It’s taken a few weddings, a family reunion, a Weaver-history lesson (thanks, Dad), and a dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at their new apartment--which really isn’t that new--to fuel an interest in the people who’ve gone before and who are my family now. I’ve missed a lot.
I’ve been reading this great book that my uncle put together a few years ago that traces my Weaver ancestry back to Switzerland when the first “Webers” were a small group of seriously persecuted Anabaptists. And I’ve been reading snip-its of stories of really interesting people I probably would have been friends with had we been living at the same time and been around the same age. And I’ve been feeling really proud of the wonderful people I never knew who had quirky senses of humor and made the best Christmas cookies and loved Jesus a lot. I’ve just become more and more thankful for being related to a bunch of people who’ve lived ordinary lives as extraordinary people. Granted, these are stories and words on pages and not the people themselves or even fair portraits of these people, but I still feel a strange connectedness to them...and proud of the decisions they’ve made and the lives they’ve lived.
I never knew that my grandfather was such a romantic and rode on horseback through a blizzard to visit Grandma before they were married. I never knew how much my grandmother loved hosting international students. And I never knew that my Great Aunt Anna Mary made a promise to her dying mother to take care of her differently-abled brother...and that this decision may have been one of the reasons she never married.
I come from good people, I’m learning, on both sides. And I’m surrounded by good people now. Tim and Virginia are living on a farm learning about green architecture. Aunt Susan is about to lead a trip to East Africa. Caitlin is on her first mission trip in Mexico. Tanisha’s getting married soon. Mary’s getting married sooner. Devon’s heading to Arizona to teach on a reservation for a year. Caleb and Mac and Emily are great dancers. Grandma Lehman knits and is the greatest prayer warrior I know.
Yes, good people. Thankful for family, especially now.
