I had a grandmother that had a rough life. She, like many grandma’s of grouchy guys like me, lived through the depression times and did somethings that they would normally not do in life. I remember clearly a story that grandma would tell to me, many times over many years…
Always ask who, what, why and when…
When I was a young girl, I came upon a small town and it had a small town mayor. The mayor had big town desires and he hired me to work in his office. I was young and naive and I needed money. Well one thing lead to another and I being a single girl and infatuated with this Swedish Mayor of a small township near Kansas City, Mo. I became entangled with a married man, who had no intention of leaving his wife and kids, for a young tramp like me…
Long story short; I ended up pregnant, ostracized and left to die on the outskirts of the town. I ended up at a farm house with a man much older than I and he and his kids my age accepted me and he married me to give my kid a name and family…
The nice older man was named Alfred and he was a German from the old country. He had come to America, lost his wife in childbirth? and was raising kids alone and trying to work a farm, plus run a grocery store downtown Kansas City during the depression…
He taught me one thing before I learned anything else. Before you do anything, before you leap, before you speak, before you run, jump, climb, scream, dance and before you do anything at all. Ask yourself questions and ask questions of everyone around you. For while no particular answer is the key, the combinations of all answers, gives you the ability to make decisions in life…
This man (Your Grandpa, as she looked at me and said, “You are a spiting image of him!”) taught me to ask;
Who? What? Why? When?
After sometime had passed and I became comfortable at the farm. I asked some questions…
I asked “Who” are you?
I asked “What” are your intentions for the future?
I asked “Why” do you care?
I asked “When” do I have to leave?
Alfred (Grandpa) said, “I am a man from the old country (known back then as Germany.) I plan on letting you stay if you desire or leave if you feel strong enough. You may leave the child or keep the child, for you are an individual and have to stand on your own two feet! I care, as I care for all those I feed and know that I will never get paid back. I am a man who could not turn you away in the eyes of God. You never have to leave, but you must carry your weight, just as everyone else does…”
Therefore I stayed and in less than a year, I married Alfred, gave my baby girl a name and found myself in a family of Germans, who accepted me (Not without issues though!) and I raised his kids and mine, and we mostly were all the same age. I had one more child and she was, by the son of Alfred and that was interesting times for a few years…
Alfred was over 40 years older than I and with that, grandma ended the story as she did many times…
That story above is how a family like mine, full of Germans ended up with a Swedish member in the family. Grandma’s first born was from a man who had only several years before, came from Sweden…
Oh and yes, grandma was Swedish and that I figured out on my own and that was why the attraction in the first place to a Swedish Mayor of a little township called Raytown, Mo. many years ago…
I was taught by this same woman to ask, Who, What, Why and When…
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…