A report to my mother--Frieda Thorp--in heaven about her great grandkids
June 22, 2016
I'm not sure what my mother-Frieda Thorp-would be doing in heaven on a Wednesday afternoon. She would probably miss this blog post showing three of her five great grandkids visiting my mom's sister Aileen Anderson in West Virginia. I would ask my mom's cronies in heaven to point these pictures out to her to show that she has left legacy that has left a trail of love in its wake since she died in 1996.
My daughter and her husband along with their three kids were traveling through Aunt Aileen's area and popped in. You can see that their visit to my 91-year-old aunt would rival most medicines you could obtain in a pharmacy. The smiles show it. I hope that my grandkids will pack away a memory of that visit.
She's a special lady. She had five sisters and six brothers. They lost both their parents at a very young age. It happened during a time when there was no foster care or social services. The older siblings took the younger ones as their responsibility. This was during the 1930s when life in this country was uniquely hard. They stuck together.
Aileen married when she was a teenager. Her husband-Ron Anderson-served in the South Pacific during World War II. When he came back he took his radio skills and used them to become a pioneer in two-way radio communication for governmental units. He did this with Motorola. He and Aileen were role models for me and my cousins.
Last year, Ron became real sick and didn't recover. He died one week and Aileen had a leg amputated a short time later. During that time she kept looking forward. She didn't dwell on her loss, but on what she still had and what she was looking forward to. I've watched her hit lots of high walls in her life and you could almost see God right next to her boosting her over.
My mom needs to know that Aileen was there today representing the family. Three of my grandkids got to meet her. I hope they remember. If not I hope this blog post will help.
Mom, you should be proud.