All in People
My Father and his siblings made up a family of nine, four girls and five boys. All were born to Henrietta Archibald MacAulay and Thomas MacAulay on the family farm, either on the upper place, or on the lower place. The sons were Russell, Jim, Tom, Wilfred and Perley. The daughters were Elsie, Nettie (Henrietta), Lucy and Margaret.
Who Am I? Where do I come from?
Where do I go from here?
How do I honor the stories
Of the ones I hold most dear?
I remember the flickering lamp light
I am just a piece of baggage, a valise well used and marred,
Showing evidence of service in a surface badly scarred.
But, I had my days of glory, though they’d be pooh-poohed by some,
When I was swept up for travel by some fingers and a thumb.
Then, I hit upon the “True Tale of the Flaming Lithuanians,” an epic of near mass murder…..but with a happier ending than Jonestown and the Kool Ade. Since my mother played the role of Jim Jones in this saga, and I was but one of her victims, we pondered whether the story should be told from her point of view or my own.
Love is an heirloom,
Long lived, long loved,
Handed down from mother to daughter,
Father to son,
Lover to beloved...
Dan Buettner’s best seller The Blue Zones tells of elder populations in Okinawa, who enjoy a specific circle of friends from age five on. As little children, their parents introduce them to one another, and this group of five or six, called a Moai, becomes their own personal support group. These people are playmates in youth and a support system for a lifetime.