This video explains very succinctly one of the big reasons that I'm a fan and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/LDS/Mormon church. I love my family, all the different crazy branches of it--Mormon, Jewish, Sikh, Mexican-American, Romanian, Punjabi Indian, European mutt. I'm constantly amazed by the similarities that pop up across the ethnic and generational divides.
I am grateful for those that have gathered and retold and recorded stories of my ancestors
-GSG (Bapu) for tape recording his parent's telling their crazy life stories (Beji was a hoot and a half, and a strong independent woman & loving mother) and for taking me on a military-march style tour of Punjab, where he was raised Sikh before moving to America to attend college and join the crazy Mormons, who's doctrine made more sense to him. Thankfully, for the benefit of all his brothers and consequently nieces and nephews, he did not abandon his family when he switched religions, and he is somewhat responsible for a vast number of organic rouge grapes being produced in Cali & for bringing Kansas the plant genetics genius BG.
-GoGo for asking her mother-in-law all sorts of questions about her family: how she grew up in Canada as the child of Romanian immigrants and how she managed a mental illness with motherhood with the support of an excellent husband and father Julius. (who was also a haberdasher, just wanted to throw out that word. No mad hatter, as far as I know.) GoGo has shared these collected stories with her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and also with me. (I need to record more of her memories before it's too late and will be eternally grateful that she took such an interest in her husband's family history.);
-I miss Mom/Grandma Betty frequently and am so glad that I got to know her personally and hear her stories, even if I often refused to learn the lessons that she was trying to pass on. (It is with very typical family stubbornness that as she would attempt to tame my tangled locks and my eyes would sting with tears, I would listen to her recount how she had been too proud to speak up when it hurt when a family friend had combed her hair at my age, and although she was counseling me to do the exact opposite, I refrained from telling her how painful her combing was because I was strong and thought I had to prove it.)
-The actualy Aunt Flo, for helping her children put together a book recounting stories like that of fireman/dairyman/cotton farmer Daddy Joe, my great-grandpa and the youngest son of polygamist Helaman Pratt, who raised his families in Mexico once polygamy was outlawed in the US/Utah. Daddy Joe's mother, Bertha, was having no luck finding a husband in Utah, and so moved to Mexico after visiting her sister and becoming the 4th wife to her sister's husband. After Helaman's death, the two sisters set up household together, with Bertha teaching school to support them financially and her sister raising the children and managing the household full time. I'm related to Mitt Romney through this line, somehow.
Hopefully my facts aren't too mangled. These are the stories that are in my brain and heart and inform my identity as a proud Caucajewmexdian. As I type these, I see that all 4 branches held women, strong and faithful matriarchs, of great power and influence for good in the world and their families. I am honored to live in their legacy and hope that I add my own stories worth passing down!
