Skip to main content

Sorting Saturday: Sorting through the tears


My morning started off pretty rough. We were scheduled to clean the church cemetery  - Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery - and so I got everyone up at 6 a.m. on their day off and we were in the car by 7ish so we were at the cemetery by 8 a.m. We were ... no one else was. So I walked around and took the photos I needed yet and I realized we have so many verterans in our parish. So many men - and some women too - gave their youth - and in at least one case his life - four our country and our freedom. I thought about this as I waited ... and waited ... and then called someone from church who the cleaning was - half awake - told me that the cleaning that was scheduled that morning had been cancelled.

As I drove us all the 20 miles back home, the girls all fell asleep in the back seat and I cried. I cried for so many reasons. I cried because I want so desperatley to serve our parish family and everything I have asked to do lately has been shot down. I cried because my part time job is not doing so well and things are getting financially tighter as I try to figure out how in the world to put the twins through college in a few years. They have so much potential. I cried because as I thought of their potential I realized why my mom hated me so very much. I cried because I realized what a disapointment I was to her. I am sure Daddy loves me but I am not sure my mother did. As I listened to the radio on the way home and thought about the morning news, I cried some more. Not because of the news itself but because I could have ...

I could have been someone who made a difference. I'm not sure if life got in the way or the biological clock started too early or if I was just scared. Scared to be alone in life. Scared of failing. Scared of disapopointing everyone more. Scared of succeeding ...

Those men and women in our cemetery with flags and markers at their graves ... I'm sure they were scared from time to time. Their stories though should be told. And so ... as I drove home I decided on a book idea. I have been playing with it for some time but I had not beed able to come up with a specific story.
Back home I listened to the news and read various media reports from Russia and England and China and Korea as well as ours here. I started an article for Examiner.com, where I write diabetes and prepping articles. This article is so much tougher than it should be. It is hard because I keep thinking of that book idea and because I am by no means a military expert. I had to google who was who in some of these Korean stories. However I do know about prepping and I know how to write in an informative tone.

Korea ... my thoughts though today keep going back to my late Uncle Pete. Peter Ruczhak fought in Korea. He was my granfather's youngest brother. The others who fought did so in World War II. Uncle Pete was born on 16 October 1932 in Coatesville, Chester County, PA. Uncle Pete enlisted on 10 February 1953 and served in the Korean War. He was released on 22 December 1954. Returning home, he was employed - like many young men in the Coatesville area - at the steel mill. He married Marianne Sherman in February of 1956 at St. Cecila's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Coatesville, Chester County, PA. They had two daughters. He passed on 19 April 2002.

And now that my thoughts have returned back round to the news concerning North Korea, I must finish my article! Although as I go to save this it dawns on me that despite the girls having off today, it is only Friday! I really liked this entry though and the title so my Sorting Saturday is done a day early ...
Labels:

Comments

  1. Heather Kuhn RoelkerMarch 30, 2013 at 10:59 PM

    I'm so sorry you had a rough day. I've had those, too. The kind of day where something small sets you off and you are just plain sad. Sometimes it is good just to get it out! I'm sure you are doing great things, raising great kids and making a difference. Sometimes a good cry can help to clarify things and now you have a book idea. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Genealogical GemsMarch 31, 2013 at 3:33 AM

    Thanks, Heather. I'm never sure if the cry sessions come more frequently because of the diabetes (I'm T2) or because of being menopausal or just because of life! Whatever the reason, they do make the good things better and I am very fortunate ... mostly! And you're right ... I have a book idea!!!! Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc
5 comments
Read more

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he found hi
Post a Comment
Read more

52 Ancestors: Anna Keating Walsh is one Tough Woman

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small , has challenged us this week with tough women. She asked “ Who is a tough, strong woman in your family tree? Or what woman has been tough to research?” My 2x great grandmother Anna Keating Walsh is indeed a tough woman.   She is a tough woman to trace and I believe she was a tough woman in her time as well. Anna (everyone past my grandparents get actual names; it is the only way I can keep people straight) was born around 1855 in Ireland . According to my grandmother, she was born in County Mayo .   My grandmother had told me that Anna had immigrated with her siblings and that she was the youngest Her parents – Patrick and Knapy Penelope Keating - had stayed behind and she settled in Ringtown which is just a stone’s throw from Shenandoah (assuming of course you can throw a bit)!   She married Michael Walsh and the lived in Shenandoah. The 1910 Census stated Anna had 11 children, with only six living in 1910. I would venture to ta
8 comments
Read more