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Family - Personal Examples

with faith, choices and mistakes have been the tools

that have given me the ability to know and recognize extreme examples of extreme love

My ancestry is from the British Isles through Ireland, England, crossing the United

States, and ancestors marriage into Native and African American lines in my genealogy,

have all played rolls in my indulgence in heartfelt diversity.

My parents, their siblings, extended family, and at least a few generations of ancestors,

were born and raised deep in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky in Floyd and Magoffin

Counties. Aside from a couple teachers, a lawyer, and a politician a few generations

back, there were very few high school graduates in my lineage until my generation. With

this generation has come a majority of high school and many higher education

graduates.

We were a poor and uneducated family. But, through some demeaning circumstances

growing up and in church involvements, I credit my dad with introducing me to beliefs and

ideals of endless consideration and unlimited value. Even with possibilities of offending

friends and family of faith, he was always ready to considerately think for himself and make his own life and faith determinations. It has taken my lifetime to date to build on the faith Dad shared and now I have come to be able to share its wealth of knowledge through progressive Unidiversal Faith.

Dad ended schooling when he graduated from sixth grade and Mom from eighth. Both families migrated to Kosciusko County, Indiana in the late 1950’s through early 1960’s for work outside the coal mines. Dad worked harvesting onion fields by hand in his teens, spent three years in the hospital with tuberculosis, then worked in factories and became a very proficient orthopedic polisher for the rest of his life. He passed away in December 1998.

Mom worked in a glove factory, with her exceptional sewing skills, inherited from her mother, for several years. She grew in business knowledge and also sold Stanley products and decorated cakes for a few years before she passed away in May of 1974. My one sibling brother was born in May of 1972 and is a successful home construction contractor with a beautiful wife, daughter, and son. Our beloved step-mother since June 1975 was also born and raised in Floyd County Kentucky and moved to Indiana to be with Dad, my brother, and I. She was a dental technician before the move and worked in an Anderson window factory and later in a fast food restraint before retiring. Needless to say, pretty much all of my family members have worked hard all our lives.

A year after Mom passed away at age 35, another example of extraordinary love came into my life. Though Dad, my brother, and I had met and been around a distant acquaintance several times, we were as much as strangers when she married dad. She was as humble, patient, and showed as much loving confidence in our family as anyone ever could have. Pauline never failed us once and is the only parent remaining at this time. She is a pristine example of John 15:13 No one has greater love than someone who dedicates their life to friends. I don’t know anyone who cold have filled as much of the family gap left by mom’s extreme love than Pauline has.

Just before becoming a federal employee in 1986 I was married and after a couple years adopted my wife’s two fantastic sons. Although we were divorced in 1991, I am still very thankful to be “Dad” and “Grandpa” to them and their families. I had a strong desire at an early age to give kids who had no real father myself to be their father. There are too many fatherless children being left behind already for me to bring more kids into the world. Even though things didn’t work out like I hoped, I’m so glad that my greatest accomplishment in life has been to have a positive affect on the lives of these two young men.