Born in a lovely, green and peaceful New York town within sight of Lake Erie, little Lois wasn’t destined for a restful, sedentary childhood.
The thread of her life would lead her to places she would never have imagined…
Her parents, as was common in the mid-1800s, had the incurable desire to move farther and ever farther West…
…and so they did.
Stops and brief homesteading along the way, threading through Ohio and Illinois…but that wasn’t far west enough…
Winding farther on and on…Lois and her three sisters traveled all across the prairie in a covered wagon, with only Mother as their guide. Their father, a seaman, was off to the far reaches of the world…
And the only lament she speaks of as a teenage girl through all of this? The loss of a favorite chicken toward the very end of their long, hard journey!
Then finally, the Rocky Mountain West. Finally, home…or so they thought.
A call to the seas…years spent joining their Father in his work in the Tahitian Islands…
Next came years spent colonizing in California…then the thread wound them back to the Rocky Mountains….finally home to stay.
And through it all…through storms, hunger, fear, loneliness, hardship, sickness…
…marriage and child-bearing…
…she remained gracious. And beautiful. And patient. And loving….
A new page made today for my heritage album…
My life is so much calmer than that of my great-great-great grandmother’s. No rough seas or Indian-filled prairies for me to cross with my children…and I’m ever so grateful for that.
But, the thread of my life has not finished it’s winding yet…and who knows where it will take me……………….
Julie
{background papers from Crafty Secrets’ “Creating with Vintage” CDs. Key from the Tim Holtz collection.}
