Family

I retired in September 2009 and felt at the time it was important to keep some kind of routine. I get up every morning at six, take Lily out to do her business, grab a hot cup of coffee and read Mike Blythe's blog existinginbfe.blogspot.com. Mike makes me think about things and entertains me. I go on from there to a variety of web sites for news,views and humor. I had a plan today for what I wanted to blog about. I can't speak for Mike, and contrary to how it may appear here, the process takes a lot of thought. I write these posts a hundred times in my head before I sit down at the computer and begin to type. There are many times when I am done that I remain unsure that I got it right. I saw a video today about love and I will post the link at the end of my blog entry today. It got me thinking about family.

My current projects are scanning my grandparents pictures and papers. My maternal grandmother Harriet Beck left a series of journals which begin in about 1920 and continue until her death in January 1992. Yesterday I was working on entries from 1936. We are not talking about a woman who wrote about the great events of the day in the world. It is a woman writing about her family and community. What movie they went to see. That in November 1936 my Mom sang two songs (Me and the Mom and You Can't Pull the Wool Over My Eyes) at the Oswegatchie Fireman's Banquet. Mom was 6 years old at the time. We have never talked about it and if my Grandmother hadn't written about it I would never know. I am running across so many names in entries of people I don't know. Mom and I are going to sit down soon and she will help me fill in some of the blanks.

My paternal Grandparent John and Byrdis Sutor left literally boxes of documents and pictures. I have pictures of my Grandmother Byrdis from about age 5 on and my Grandfather John from about age 3. Letters between the two of them and between her and her parents from the late 1920's and early 1930's. Adoption played a big part in that family. My Grandmother Byrdis was adopted by George and Byrd Oyler. At some time when she was in college at Knox in Galesburg her birth mother attempted to contact her. She rebuked the effort telling her to never attempt to contact her again and that the Oylers were her parents.



This is a picture of Byrdis, George and Byrd Oyler taken in January 1934.

 

My father John G. Sutor was adopted by John and Byrdis Sutor in 1937 or there abouts. He was around 8 years old at the time. He was adopted with his sister Sally. We learned later after the deaths of John and Byrdis that my father had two other siblings. We also learned that his birth mother was still alive and had spent years looking for her four children. They were all reunited prior to my father's death in 1999.

 

 

The picture above was taken in the late 1930's. Those in the photograph from the left are front row: Sally Sutor, John G. Sutor, back row John J. Sutor, Emma Parsons Sutor (my grandfather John's mother) Byrd Oyler and George Oyler.

 

My dear wife Carol was adopted by Larry and Jackie Bybee when she was six years old.

 

This is her adoptive father Larry. He was a great guy and we often wish he had lived long enough to get to see his grandchildren. When I was in college and before we got married Carol got to meet her birth parents and every year we get together with her birth family siblings.

 

These are Carol's birth parents James and Mary Loman.

 

 

This is Carol with 6 of her 7 siblings. From the left Sissy, Robert, Carol, David, James, Linda and Roger. Carol and Robert were the only two out of the eight who were adopted. Out of the eight they were numbers 5 and 6. Robert went to a family in Ohio and Carol ended up in Galesburg. The rest of the family remained in Kentucky.

 

So that is a little about family. What is my point? Someone loved my Grandmother Byrdis, my father John and my wife Carol enough to open their hearts and their homes to a child who had no home or family at the time. Had it not been for them where would I be now? My grandmother and grandfather would not have met and adopted my father and my wife would have been living in Kentucky and we would never have met. What a strange world it is and what special things must happen to put us where we are. Is it all chance and circumstance or is their a grand hand that guides it all?  I don't know. I am just thankful that these folks saw a need and said yes.

 

Take a minute now. Come on you are already on the internet. Go watch this video. Go to youtube and enter Isaac and Amy Yes to Love. It will be the best four minutes and 23 seconds of your day.

 

 

Our adopted children Candy Mae (RIP) and Lily Lu. Miss Lily was curious as to what I was doing and got this close to the camera.