Tag: mystery

Sixty Years Later

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Meet my cousin Diane. What a lady!

She is a modern day survivor. None of us would wish for the childhood she had.

Diane’s mom was a troubled soul. Back in the day she suffered mental issues that are now treatable. We owe my aunt much, due to the experimental treatments she endured.

Drama lived in Diane’s childhood home, leaving her bitter memories. My aunt was committed to a mental institution where she lived out her remaining years.

Diane was sent to an orphanage. Upon her return home, she and her father didn’t get along well.

Society didn’t make life easy for a single father. While still a minor, Diane left home. Society didn’t make life easy for a teenager on her own either.

New and Improved

Diane married, striving for the normal family she had never known.

The two of us had lost touch with each other long ago. But through my husband’s Ancestry page, she located me/us.

This summer we had made a return trip to Michigan, taking the opportunity to meet Diane.

Her first words reflected my own feelings, “I’m so nervous!”

We learned for seventeen years we lived forty-five minutes from each other, never knowing it. There is so much to catch up on.

A Mystery

It’s a mystery why life takes us places we never imagined. Maybe we wouldn’t have appreciated our family ties if they were normal. What is normal anyway, but a setting on our washer?

God’s reasons are beyond our way of thinking. Two things I can say with certainty:

The Lord carried Diane through tough times, and she came out fine. And both of us have been blessed with a restored relationship.

Restoration, that’s what He is all about. Okay, so three things.

My Two Moms

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© jb katke

A tribute to my two Moms. One gave me life, the other gave me her son.

Isn’t it interesting how much love grows when we no longer have what we once had? In my youth, I didn’t give my mother the respect and admiration she deserved. My eyes never saw what she had experienced, bringing her into motherhood. I made the mistake of comparing her to my mother-in-law, whom I had seen events that changed her life.  So my lack of facts influenced this immature mind. But I know now Mom, thank you for your loving and humble perseverance as I grew to be a Mom myself.

Oh yes, that lovely promotion to motherhood, that opens our eyes to how much we don’t know after all!

What I witnessed and/or heard about my mother-in-law led me to believe she had a challenging life. In one particular conversation she surprised me  saying she never felt anger at God for the hard places she was in. What a lesson that taught me! Life is what it is. Its how we respond to circumstances that makes all the difference in the world.

That’s why these photos I’m sharing are in their young adult years. Like all of us, they started out in life with hope in an unknown future. What took place in our Mom’s life prior to motherhood is a mystery, but says everything about who they grow to be. Events come and circumstances go, but in the process give us the means to know God better as He molds our life in accordance to his plan for each of us.

Thank you Lord, for my two Moms, I love them dearly. They have moved to their eternal homes, but because they remain in my heart they continue to live. Happy Mother’s Day!