A Special Mother's Day Gift

I will be 35 years old in June. I wish that I could say I've cared about my heritage and the generations before me. But I just haven't. I wish that I had listened more closely to my grandparents' super long stories about how they walked to school in the snow (not really but you know what I mean). But I didn't. It wasn't until just recently that I've come to care about these stories of the past and how I wish I knew more about the generations before me.

You see, my mom's biological father died when she was just two years old. He was 37 years old and suffered from congenital heart disease that eventually claimed his life. My grandma remarried to the only grandfather I've known and he adopted my mom. We recently had to move my grandparents to a nursing home because they suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's. As we've been cleaning out their home (because my own family is moving in), we have found videos and photos of my mom's biological dad, Lloyd. We found his shaving kit, the tie and watch he was wearing when he died. The memorial book from his funeral. His wallet and work tools (he was an optometrist). It has been so special to find these things.

So, I was thinking how neat it would be to find out as much as I could about him to give to my mom. I've been working on this for about a month, maybe a little more. The search has been fascinating, challenging, encouraging, very emotional, tough and rewarding.

Let me introduce you to Lloyd Azel Warren. (Warning: Picture overload but I want a copy for myself too.)

What all of this has taught me is that our history is so important. And if you don't share stories and pass them down, that eventually there will be no history there to share. The stories of where we came from are important. I already scrapbook (via Project Life) and document my own family. But I think I'll start documenting things more fully. Like, I want to be able to describe my family so that when we're long gone, my children's children's children will know that my husband was so kind and that my dad was hard working and never met a stranger.
I was able to track down a first cousin of my mom's. She was the son of Lloyd's brother Ralph and lives in Georgia. She was able to tell me a little more about her own father and family and gave me a few pictures of Lloyd she found. I also tracked down a half first cousin, Mark. He actually lives in the same town we do and vaguely remembers playing with my mom as a child.

The entire time I was researching, I couldn't find out anything about Lloyd's dad, James. I mean nada. I went up to Nahunta, GA where Lloyd was born and after about three hours, I was finally able to track down his birth certificate which gave me more information about James. I found out he serve in WWI and where his grave was. I was so excited.

So, this Mother's Day, I'm giving my mom the gift of history. I'm hoping we can continue to research her family together.