Family ties

Friday morning I took a shuttle filled mostly with Chinese students up north to Indianapolis, and flew to Detroit and then onto Rochester for a brief, but great visit to see my grandparents.

One of the best parts was looking through old pictures and hearing little snippets of info about relatives on Grandma's side, some of which I've heard before, but is always intriguing:

-Grandma's father swam a river to escape the Russian draft, and left his home country, Lithuania, for a better life in America. He never wanted to go to church in America, because some priests in Lithuania turned in his friends when they confessed they were fleeing the country.
-A great aunt died in a Soviet gulag in Siberia.
-Several relatives were killed by the Nazis in Poland.
-Grandma's grandfather on her mother's side was also from Lithuania. They were well off in Lithuania, but not so much in America. He died working in a mill in Massachusetts, trying to make enough money to get his family back to Lithuania. (Thankfully he didn't succeed, or I wouldn't be here today!)
-Grandma's mom was a great sport and way ahead of her time--she let even let Grandma go on bike trips in New England when she was young.
-Grandma's dad was always dressed in fine suits, because he was a tailor for a big suit-manufacturing company.

Anyway, the main reason for my visit was to see dear, sweet Grandpa! I visited him every day during this visit. He moved into a different nursing home in the middle of the city that is more hospital-like and depressing, especially since it's 10 stories tall. And a lot of the residents seem just plain crazy. Grandpa seems happy, although he had changed quite a bit from our last visit just 2 months ago. He's in a wheelchair now and is a lot thinner. But he is still so cute, with his big smile, huge eyes, and fluffy hair. We sat and talked to him. I held his hand and hugged him a lot. I just melt when he says, "My Laura, my Laura" and hugs me or kisses my cheek. He doesn't really remember much, but I'm still thankful he remembers who we are. He'll be turning 90 this month!

Although Grandpa didn't or couldn't talk much, I got to work on transcribing his journal when he went to Antarctica at the age of 72. That was a great blessing to work on it, because it was like hearing the voice of my grandfather when I was younger and how I remembered him--strong, funny, to-the-point, and able to seemingly do anything. I'm not done with the journal (everyone knows he doesn't have the greatest handwriting), but already I'm amazed at his courage, even when he felt alone and a little scared. Going to Antarctica for a month on a Russian icebreaker was a lifelong dream of his, which only added to other great adventures throughout his life: serving as a pilot in World War 2, traveling to 6 continents, marrying his charming wife, having 4 charming children and several equally charming grandchildren, providing well for his family, working hard his whole career at Kodak, sailing on his sailboat around Lake Ontario, building his own airplane, venturing out to Kansas every summer to see us, trusting in Christ at 86 years of age...

He has definitely inspired me! My whole family inspires me actually. I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. And hopefully I can inspire some people, too, to live a bold and brave life! Yesterday flying back to Indiana, I was talking with the man next to me, who has 3 daughters. We ended up talking about some of the places I've been and things I've experienced and learned thanks to God's grace. He said, "Thank goodness my daughters aren't sitting next to you right now. I'm afraid they would talk to you and then want to go explore the whole world! They'd never be the same again."

Here are a few pictures from this weekend:

With Grandpa!

Grandma, the expert raspberry picker.

All the raspberries Grandma, Aunt Susie, and I picked and then promptly ate...