A Family Mission Trip

I grew up is a somewhat idyllic community on the eastside of Detroit.  The Motor City was a vibrant, and still relatively safe, place in the late 50’s and early 60’s.  My friends and I really considered the whole city our playground.  In the case of my siblings and I, we also grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by family.  My aunt and uncle, as well as my grandparents, lived within a few blocks.  My three great aunts also lived with a mile.  Until last summer my Uncle Don, a World War II veteran, still lived in a house in that neighborhood.  Detroit is not a hospitable place these days, but uncle had great neighbors who watched out for him.  Whenever we talked to him about moving he dug his feet in.  After a serious fall, he finally listened to his doctor.  My siblings and I moved him into an apartment in a senior community in July, with the promise to return to deal with the house.

The move was easy.   Cleaning out a house filled with sixty-plus years of memories was another issue.   My Uncle has lived alone in the house for the last seventeen years.  You can only begin to imagine the condition of the house.  It meant going through years of family records and sorting through lots of stuff.  We found some gems like my uncle’s original Erector Set and his army uniform.  I also brought home lots of pictures including my mom on her wedding day and my dad in his WW II Coast Guard uniform.  My Aunt Phyllis taught the 2^nd grade Sunday school class at St. James Lutheran Church in Grosse Pointe until her health declined.  In going through her room we found old Sunday school lesson books, children’s hymnals and gifts that she had bought for her students.

Probably the most meaningful finds were a copy of the paperwork from my great-great grandmother’s passage through Ellis Island in 1922 and Ration Book from WW II. Both not only reminded me of what my descendants had gone through but the way God blessed them.  Family Bibles and a copy of a Lutheran Hymnal in German further underscored the faith of my ancestors.   The whole experience left me more determined to live their legacy. I also want to pass the torch of faith to my my children and grandchildren.