Everyone comes from somewhere
I keep my grandmother Marie’s old wooden darning egg on my computer desk to remind of where I come from.
Her legacy to me is ‘have courage, work hard, and never give up’.
Marie grew up in a tiny village in what is now Czech. and was evicted from home at age 12 to make her own way in the world; this was not out of meaness, her family was simply unable to provide.
Her first job was essentially the same as her last job; she was a domestic servant or maid. She did manually labor her entire life.
At age 32, she got on a ship, travelling to a new country (sponsored by a sibling) and settled in Detroit.
At age 34, she married a 2nd generation immigrant from her old country.
By age 42, she had given birth to 6 children and buried two of them.
Marie never learned to speak english but made sure her children went to school, even if school was held in an abandoned street car.
Her entire life was spent making do, darning sox, reusing, recycling, and always working hard.
Marie was a wrinkled elderly woman by the time I knew her; she having married in her 30s and my father also having married in his 30s.
I recall her cooking on a woodstove and darning sox. She lived into her 90s.
Because of her hard life, and her courage to put down roots in a strange new country, I have so much more opportunity than she ever envisioned. She did the best she could with the life she had.
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