~and we are living in a great thing called history~

I came across a picture the other day that gave me some hope in this time of challenge that we are enduring in the world.  It was of a man and woman with their three little girls alongside them.  There were smiles on their faces as they stood among one another, more than likely on the Kansas prairie near the little town of Burrton.

Take a look at them, shown below.

~Andrew and Catherine Brown with their three daughters~

My Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Rebecca are the big girls.  My mom is the little baby.

This picture brings me a strange and unexpected amount of solace in these weeks and months of our time spent in the great pandemic of Covid 19.  The Brown Family had lived through the last great pandemic of the Spanish influenza.  Grandmother had been pregnant with my mother during its waning days of wreaking havoc upon the earth and to deliver her baby safe and sound in the early autumn of 1920 must have been such a relief to her.  Granddad's sister, my 58-year old Great-Aunt Mary, had succumbed two years prior in the beginning stages of the influenza.  My grandparents lived each day with that knowledge and yet they went on in faith.  Life was really tough and for the life of me, I am not sure how they managed to do that.

Even in the crazy times we now live in, one thing I know is this.

I come from some pretty sturdy stock, and I hold that knowledge close to my heart.

It helps me during those moments when I feel like this great pandemic will never go away.

If every picture tells a story, and indeed they do, then the story that emanates from the image shown above is one of certain hope for a future.  Just look at the smile on Catherine's face, a 29-year old woman who now has 3 precious little girls to care for and raise up.  Worldwide pandemics or not, she doesn't look one bit afraid of the great unknown before her.  Little did she know that one day she would reach the ripe old age of nearly 106 before joining her Andrew on the streets of gold.  The 3 little girls in the picture would also live long into the future with one of them, my Aunt Rebecca, living to be 103.  

Like I said, I come from some pretty sturdy stock.   I thank God each day for the subtle reminders that are sent my way to reaffirm that very fact.  Take heart, all of you.  These times we are now finding ourselves in are shaping us into the people we are destined to be.  Don't be afraid.  Keep hope in your heart.

We are living in a great thing called history.

~and 100 years later, their little granddaughter Peggy would grow up to tell their story~

early April of 2020, in the first few weeks of "safer at home" time