Love and Its

The pendulum is swaying ever so gently touching each generation and their choices. None are right; none were wrong, and yet there is a similarity. Different generations share both the link of possession or possibly mutual need. We become acutely aware of our own humanity at different times in our lives.

Suddenly we realize there is a link between those who walked a hundred years ago and those we now watch follow in our footsteps today.

There is an amazing parallel, and we pause to wonder how it is possible that despite never having known each other there is such an obvious connection of emotion

Nellie Quinn left home at 17 to travel across a vast ocean, leaving her parents and siblings. The world she emerged in once the ship had docked in the new country was overcrowded and unfriendly. Fortunately, the young man, John King, she had met on board promised to help her settle in the new land.

And so he did. Within three months they had married, and Nellie was almost immediately pregnant with her first child. The young groom had secured a job as a conductor on a NYC trolley line, and his Mother moved into the tenement in Hells Kitchen with the newly weds.

Having left her own family behind, Nellie was determined never to lose the new family she had started. Before twenty years passed, she had given birth to 11 more infants. Six of the dozen survived, and she wrapped them in a steel embrace for the remainder of their lives.Watching this penalty for love, her three grandchildren, were equally determined to give their offspring wings. And so we did, quite successfully. Perhaps even more so than we had intended.

The other evening at a party in San Diego I found myself in the company of a charming gentleman, about the age of one of my children, who shocked me with the following statement. “If only I could have bypassed children and just gone on to have grandchildren.”

As a guest, hopefully I hid my emotions, but wondered at his words. I have had many joys in my life, and yes, a few sorrows too, but never could I wish I had bypassed the four amazing gifts God gave my husband and me.

Of course, while there has been love and joy, there has also been anguish and admittedly pain in the years we have shared, and possibly, more to come. However, unlike Nellie, I encouraged their wings to fly further than I wished, and frankly admit I will never know which one of us was wiser. Yet could or would I ever deny their contribution to the time I have spent on this earth? Never!

And I have to wonder how Nellie would have responded to the charming gentleman’s pronouncement.