My niece Rachael, was on a TV program this past Monday night called the Generation Project. The premise of the program is connecting with the past to help the person on the program in whatever challenge you are facing today.
Rachael's father died when she was twelve years old and has longed to have that father-daughter relation, which was taken from her. As I sat watching it over the Internet, I pictured my family sitting there in Utah...then my thoughts turned, as they usually do, to those who have gone on and experienced what Rachael experienced, of losing a parent so early in their childhood. My paternal Grandfather, Edmund P. Galbraith, Little Grandma, Mary Elma Haynie, Susan Ellen Johnson among others. Her story brought a new freshness, a voice to those who have gone on.
As a Family Historian, I have always felt a closeness to those of the past, they have never been names on a pedigree chart for me, but rather real people, people whom I wanted to know. So it was fun to see Rachael to get to do this on TV. It also put a little fire underneath me to finish the editing and writing of my family History so that my daughter, nephews and nieces and their children and their children will have something to read and to hold on to, so they might find strength in their past to face the challenges which lay before them.
A few years back, the singer Josh Groban, recorded a song which became very popular - "You Raise Me Up" - while I know that it is a song is towards Jesus Christ, for me it as always been about my Ancestors. The song opens with: "When I am down and, oh so weary; when troubles come and my heart burdened be; then, I am still and wait here in the silence, until you come to me."
I have been still and waited in silence many times and they, my ancestors, have came and sat awhile with me. "For behold I will send you Elijah the prophet...and he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children.." Then they have and do "Raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; they raise me up to to walk on Stormy seas; I am strong when I upon their shoulders; they raise me up to more than I can be."
Perhaps, the one I seek the most to come, like Rachael, is my Dad, the sorrow felt twenty-eight years ago today has mellowed, however the longing, missing, the emptiness has not. I feel his love, my memories brings me happiness, but they don't bring back his touch. I can see his smile, hear his voice, but how I long for the day when we can embrace in a loving hug! To stand face to face and tell each other "I Love you." Yes, his spirit comes to me, and I know if I stand on his shoulders of love and example I can be more than I can be.
In the book "How Green was my Valley" There is a quote which not only applies to my Dad, but to all my Ancestors.
"Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever."
To Rachael, and to all of us; I hope we will be still and wait in silence for those who are beyond the veil to come and set awhile with us, for they will come and raise us up to be strong so we can be more than we can be.
