POEMS FOR DAN

 

STOP ALL THE CLOCKS

W. H. Auden

 

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

 

Kristen and I are having this read at Dan's funeral. (And when the time comes, ours.) We know we won't be able to read it ourselves on Thursday so the chaplain will probably read it.

 

I am still thinking of writing a eulogy. If I do, part of this poem will be included in it:

 

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO

THAT GOOD NIGHT

by Dylan Thomas

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

 





DANIEL BRUCE FREDERICKSEN, BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER

HAPPIER DAYS

"Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea."

On March 23, 2013, Dan Fredericksen slipped away without pain and crossed over to a place where the October skies are always bluebird blue, the game is always plentiful and the hunting dogs always behave.

Daniel Bruce Fredericksen was born in Williston, ND, on Aug. 5, 1948, to Earl and Lillian Fredericksen. He fell in love with the great outdoors at an early age, while on pheasant hunts with his father and older brothers, and camping trips with the Boy Scouts. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in high school. He was also introduced to the joys of fishing on family trips to Lac La Ronge, Sask. In later years he loved to fish for walleye on Lake Sakakawea and Lake Oahe.

He graduated from Williston High School in 1966 and entered the Navy that summer. He joked that he joined the Navy to see the world, but all he saw was California and Vietnam.

After receiving medical training at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital in Oceanside, CA, he spent a year in Vietnam during 1968-1969, serving as a Navy medical corpsman attached to the 3rd Marine Battalion. He was known as "Doc Fred" by his comrades. He saw action during the famous New Year's Tet offensive. He was wounded in action and received the Purple Heart.

After leaving the Navy he attended Minot State College and worked as an ambulance driver. In 1970 he was selected from among thousands of applicants to be a member of the University of North Dakota's first-ever physician's assistant or - as it was known then - MEDEX program. At that time, only medics and corpsmen were selected for training as PAs. He trained at UND and in Langdon, ND, working with Dr. Bill Goodall and Dr. Nick Kaluzniak and the staff of Langdon Hospital and Langdon Clinic He spent five years as a physician's assistant in Langdon, and was known affectionately by all as "Doc." He was initiated in the art of goose hunting while living in Langdon.

On June 29, 1974, he was married to Julie Johnson in Langdon. The next year they left Langdon so that Dan could pursue a four-year degree at the University of North Dakota. He loved getting together with his friends from the UND Vets' Club to trade war stories. He also formed hunting friendships that lasted all his life.

In 1981 Dan accepted a position with Syntex Pharmaceuticals in Bismarck. This was the beginning of a long pharmaceutical sales career. He also worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Innovex. In later years he worked for Eide Ford in Bismarck.

Dan and Julie's daughter, Kristen Anne, was born on July 9, 1982. She was the light of his life and he was a terrific dad. He was extremely proud of her academic record and her accomplishments. He was also "Dad" to Val, our foreign exchange student.

Again in Bismarck Dan formed lifelong hunting bonds with new friends, and re-connected with old Williston pals for fun trips back to that area for yearly pheasant hunts. He also hunted grouse, ducks, deer and antelope in North Dakota, and deer and elk in Montana. He was so excited to bag an elk that he called Julie with his news from the side of a mountain.

He was a good golfer, an avid reader and a great amateur gourmet cook until his illness kept him from enjoying these hobbies. He loved to sit out on the deck of a long summer evening and he liked watching the History Channel, the Hunting Channel, and any sporting event on TV. He stayed loyal to the Vikings in good times and bad, and never missed, if he could help it, a televised game featuring his beloved UND Sioux Hockey Team. He was teased for watching his "redneck" shows, like Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and Moonshiners.

He was a kind, caring and generous husband. He always did sweet little things like starting Julie's car for her on cold winter mornings, even after he became ill. He was proud of his long marriage and had wanted to make it to his 39th wedding anniversary in June. One of his favorite leisure activities after retiring was to hang out with his pals at Sidelines in Bismarck.

He almost always had a canine companion or two by his side, starting with his boyhood dog, Copper, and later Jacques, Beau, Lady, Brandy, Penny and Gracie.

He was diagnosed with Stage IV gastroesophageal cancer in December 2011. After chemotherapy, he went into remission in April 2012 and remained in remission for 10 months. In February, he was diagnosed with leptomeningeal disease, a rare cancer of the lining of the brain.

He is survived by his wife, Julie, Bismarck; daughter, Kristen, Alexandria, VA; brothers Gordon (Sue), Oroville, CA, Dick (Bonny), Meridian, ID, and Scott (Dana), Great Falls, VA; sister-in-law Glori Fagerland, Lincoln; 10 nieces and nephews; numerous great-nieces and -nephews; and "adopted" second daughter Valentina Casas, Caracas, Venezuela. He was preceded in death by his grandparents and parents.

UPDATE ON DAN

I know some people are wanting to hear news about Dan so I will write a short post. Dan's condition continues to deteriorate. He cannot eat and takes in very little fluids either. He is extremely thin and his balance is very poor. He spends most of the time lying on the couch. Though deaf, he can watch close-captioned TV, but is no longer able to concentrate on books or newspapers.

He is now under hospice care and the nurses and the social worker have been, for the most part, wonderful. I truly believe they are guardian angels in human form. Hospice is all about the patient's choice. Dan  is a very stubborn man and is at the point where he is refusing to be shaved, bathed, have his teeth brushed or his clothes changed. But that is HIS CHOICE. He also refuses the hospital bed we had brought in, plus the walker, plus the commode. He gets very angry when we try to offer him help of any sort. This is hurtful to me, but Kristen keeps reminding me that it is the brain tumor talking, not him.

By choosing hospice care he is able to have his main end-of-life wish fulfilled, which is not to be hospitalized, and to have only palliative care.

He is not in pain but has meds available for pain, anxiety and nausea. My sister is watching him for 10 hours a day so I can continue to work as long as I can because I have very little vacation time and even less sick leave. I spent most of last week at home and was able to use family sick leave for that.

My biggest frustration is trying to get some respite care arranged for me to have a few free hours on the weekend, but so far it has been a battle of agency red tape.

I wouldn't wish this situation on my worst enemy. More than anything it is mentally exhausting, but I feel physically drained as well. I am sure that the support of my family and my friends in blogland has helped keep me sane and putting one foot in front of the other for this long. Thank you so much.

**********************

ADDED LATER:

The hospice nurse was able to bathe Dan this afternoon, get him into a gown and get him into the hospital bed. He looks very warm and comfortable now. Some say there are no coincidences. A co-worker of Amy, one of our hospice nurses, grew up in Langdon, ND, where Dan was a physician's assistant for five years. Dan used to work with this lady's mother at the Langdon Clinic and the daughter remembers him too (from the 1970s!). Yesterday Amy brought over a beautiful quilt given to Dan by these two long-ago friends.

VALERIE HARPER HAS SAME CANCER AS DAN

I just read that Valerie Harper (TV's Rhoda) has the same rare cancer as Dan does. Click on this link:

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/valerie-harper--tv-icon--diagnosed-with-terminal-brain-cancer-130901236.html

DAN

Around the end of January or the beginning of February, Dan went profoundly deaf literally overnight. An MRI test at the Fargo VA and a consult with a neurologist revealed a brain tumor. At the time, we were not sure if the tumor was cancerous or benign, new or metastasized.

Dan visited his oncologist in Fargo last Wednesday and the news was grim.  She told him he is out of remission and the cancer has spread to the lining  of his brain, taking the form of leptomeningeal brain disease, a fancy way of saying cancerous meningitis. Needless to say, as a deaf patient he had a difficult time getting information about his condition, but I was able to speak to her by phone on Monday.

What is so ironic is that the original tumor at the juncture of the esophagus and stomach, after being shrunk by chemo, has not grown. It did not spread to the liver or lungs or anywhere in the chest or abdomen. Instead, in a very, very rare occurrence, a few cancer cells escaped into his bloodstream, went into his spinal column, and traveled to his brain. If this had not happened, he might have enjoyed the 4 or 5 years of remission that his oncologist had suggested might happen.

In addition to being deaf, he now experiences trouble with his gait. He shuffles when he walks and needs to grab onto things for support. All kinds of other neurological symptoms may develop. He is not, however, in any pain.

It is very likely we will not see our 39th wedding anniversary at the end of June. We have done a lot of crying, and then we went on to taking care of finances, getting paper work drawn up, talking about palliative care and hospice, etc.

All through this time (he was diagnosed on Dec. 9, 2011, five days after I started), work has been a respite for me, a chance to forget things for a while. But now things are horrid at work so there is no release for me, anywhere.

Life is hell for us and our daughter. Kristen is coming home on Thursday. She had plans to come home at Easter but the oncologist advised her to come now, because, she said,  with a brain tumor, "there's no telling when."

Please keeps us in your prayers, not for a miracle, but for the most pain free, easy passage we can give this dear husband and father.
---------------------

PS - I'd better not hear from anyone accusing me of feeling sorry for myself. You will get an earful, and your sorry comments will not be printed.

A GREATER MEANING TO THANKSGIVING

"The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor", William Halsall, 1882

I have always loved Thanksgiving for its delicious food and autumn-hued decorations. My first - very fond - memories of Thanksgiving are of creating Thanksgiving turkeys in art class, the more colorful their feathers, the better. Like all grade schoolers across the country, we learned about the First Thanksgiving on American shores.

It is a holiday that I keep separate from Christmas madness, believing it should be given the complete attention it deserves as a secular holiday enjoyed by all Americans, without the frenzy of gift giving, and with an emphasis on family and friends.

This year, Thanksgiving is even more special to me because of my discoveries through ancestry.com. At present, I know of at least two ancestors who came to the New World  for religious freedom. I'm not saying they came over on the Mayflower, the first ship that landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. No, I have no claims to being a Mayflower descendant -  not yet, anyway!

Records show that my ancestor John Churchill from England arrived in Plymouth in 1643, 23 years after the first settlers. His wife was Hannah Pontus, from Leiden, Holland. I'm thinking that John probably met Hannah after he left England for the more religiously tolerant Holland.

I also have a bunch of ancestors who settled Jamestown Colony, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Again, I'm not saying that they came over on the first ships - Discovery, Godspeed and the Susan Constant - in 1607.



 

Lt. Col. Henry Meese

An interesting ancestor of mine making his name in the Jamestown area was Lt. Col. Henry Meese. Born in 1600 in Oxfordshire, England, he was a one-time London merchant who immigrated to America but made many trips between his home country and the New World. He owned land in Virginia, served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and earned his military title from the Indian-fighting militia. He died not long after making a last trip back to England.

What makes Henry so interesting to me is his daughter Grace Frizer Meese, and the fact that he had a couple of Native American wives. "Mary" (Christian name) and her sister Keziah were daughters of Wahaganoche, Chief of the Patawomeck Nation (Patawomeck = Potomac). It is very difficult to tell if Grace was the daughter of either woman and therefore half Native American.

Jamestown settlers trading with Virginia Indians
 



Many families with trees on ancestry.com claim that Grace is the daughter of Mary. However, the birth dates for Wahaganchoe, Mary and Grace are so wildly differing in each case that it becomes a tangled mess. I can't believe how many family trees list Grace as born 1627 and her so-called mother Mary as being born in 1640. C'mon people, use your brains!

In the end, Grace may have had a white mother. Therefore, just like I am not claiming to be a Mayflower descendant, I am not claiming to be the descendant of an Indian princess, just of a man who had Indian wives. It would be a matter of great pride for me to claim Native American blood in the people who were contemporaries of the more famous Pocahontas and her father Powhatan.

Pocahontas saving John Smith

It has been a long, long time since I studied Early American history. But upon learning of my heritage, I had a few questions:

What is the difference between Puritans and Pilgrims, if any?

Were there any differences between the settlers of the Plymouth Colony at Plymouth, MA and those from the Massachusetts Bay Colony centered around Boston and Salem, MA?

Were there differences between the New England settlers and the Virginia settlers?

Who celebrated the first Thanksgiving?





 

"The First Thanksgiving", J. L. G. Ferris

The first thing I learned was how important upper-case and lower-case letters were in naming groups of people involved in the making of America. ALL people who make religious trips are pilgrims with a small "p". Therefore both the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers were pilgrims. But the ones who came to be known as Pilgrims with a capital "P" were the settlers at Plymouth. A small group of English people who arrived in 1620, they were aided by Squanto and his tribe, who, as I remember from picture books, helped the settlers plant maize and fertilize their crops with fish. These Pilgrims are the ones who celebrated what has become known as The First Thanksgiving.

 

Of course, I realize that The First Thanksgiving has become mythologized and the story contains assumptions, half-truths and downright lies. For example, no one knows if they served turkey. The only written report says they had "fowl". But this is the Thanksgiving tale that is ingrained in our American psyche.

(PS - The travelers on the Mayflower in 1620 were headed for the Jamestown, Virginia, colony when fierce storms caused them to turn course and land at Cape Cod, MA. Good luck for them, as it turned out, with both the Pilgrims and the New England Native Americans being of a  more harmonious nature than their Southern counterparts.)

 

 

 

Covering all bases, this caption says "Puritans and Pilgrims

arriving in the New World during the early 1600s"

(Artist Unknown)

Now on to another "small p, large p" definition. The group of people in England known as puritans with a small "p" were those who wanted to purify or reform the Anglican Church (Church of England). Therefore, members of both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies were "small p" puritans.

However, the Pilgrims of Plymouth wanted to break completely away from the Anglicans and consequently were known as Separatists. The Massachusetts Bay settlers, a much larger group who arrived in America about 1630, had no intention of totally breaking away from the Anglicans and became known as Puritans with a capital " P".

The two New England colonies merged in 1691 and the differentiation between the Pilgrims/pilgrims and the puritans/Puritans became lost in the mists of time. (The Puritan witchcraft trials at Salem being a discussion for another time.)

 

 

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard

I don't think these are Puritans -

he looks like a Cavalier!

But what about the first 100 settlers of the Virginia Company at Jamestown? They were more the entrepreneurial type rather than the religious freedom type. They were aristocrats who were ill prepared for the new life they faced. They arrived during a time of drought and were too late to plant crops the first year. Famine, disease and conflict with the Indian tribes brought them to the brink of failure. They were "rescued" in 1610 by a new group of settlers with a good store of supplies.

But who's to say the Jamestown settlers didn't have "a" first Thanksgiving (as opposed to "The" First Thanksgiving? Coming from England, they were familiar with the harvest home celebrations of their native land. I think that when they finally had a good harvest they did sit down to a good  meal and thank God.

Therefore I salute both my Massachusetts and Virginia settler ancestors on this Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Another vintage Thanksgiving postcard.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

OBSESSION



Have you ever been obsessed by someone or some thing? I can't say that I have, until just this past October. I spent nearly the entire month under the spell of searching for my ancestors.

I have been bitten hard by the ancestry bug, and it IS a sickness. It all came about because of two things. Dan's nephew Erik took out a trial membership on ancestry.com this summer and was able to fill in some key information on his tree, which is also in part his Uncle Dan's tree. Then, serendipitously, I heard from a distant relative of Dan's whom I had not been in contact with for years. She and her sisters are the tracers of the Sudie Sheppard line (Dan's paternal grandmother).

Seeing both their trees inspired me to take out a trial membership too. I have mentioned before that I have been lucky in the genealogy department. My cousin Kevin is searching the Norwegian Wangen line of our maternal grandmother. My second cousin Shirley from Scotland is searching the Munro line of Highlanders. I have a second cousin from Iowa who is tracing the Rockney/Cody line of my father.

Although the Rockney line goes way back to the 1600s in Norway, the Cody line stops abruptly with Bridget and John Cody, born in the 1830s in Ireland. But I thought I would try my paternal great-grandmother's line and see if it would take me anywhere.

And has it ever. All through October, I followed links, adding name upon name. Every coffee break and lunch hour at work, I was adding names. Every evening, I was adding names. Every weekend, I was bound to the computer, adding names.

I no longer watched TV (a good thing), didn't follow my friends' blogs (a bad thing), didn't snooze on the couch (a good thing). I didn't even read (a very, very bad thing). Luckily, Dan is low maintenance. He had his TV shows to watch - his sports and his "weird" shows (Swamp People, Storage Wars, American Pickers, Pawn Stars).

It finally got to the point that instead of being extremely excited to see those wavy green leaves (ancestry.com's clues to familial links), I became dismayed. I was actually happy when some lines ended early. Ultimately, I realized  that it would be taking me far, far longer than a month.

I did a little math on my own and then looked up the info online to confirm my calculations. After just 20 generations, we have 1,048,560 ancestors. If you don't believe me, look at this:

1 YOU (1 Generation)
2 parents (2 Generations)
4 grandparents (3 Generations)
8 great grandparents (4 Generations)
16 gg grandparents (5 Generations)
32 ggg grandparents (6 Generations)
64 gggg grandparents (7 Generations)
128 ggggg grandparents (8 Generations)
256 gggggg grandparents (9 Generations)
512 ggggggg grandparents (10 Generations)
1,024 gggggggg grandparents (11 Generations)
2,048 ggggggggg grandparents (12 Generations)
4,096 gggggggggg grandparents (13 Generations)
8,192 ggggggggggg grandparents (14 Generations)
16,384 gggggggggggg grandparents (15 Generations)
32,768 ggggggggggggg grandparents (16 Generations)
65,536 gggggggggggggg grandparents (17 Generations)
131,072 ggggggggggggggg grandparents (18 Generations)
262,144 gggggggggggggggg grandparents (19 Generations)
524,288 ggggggggggggggggg grandparents (20 Generations)
1,048,576 gggggggggggggggggg grandparents (21 Generations

Of course, you don't have that many identifiable ancestors. Thank god. And of course, this number doesn't mean you have that many unique ancestors in.  What is happening is repetition of ancestors, that is, the same ancestors appearing over and over again in a pedigree.  Repetition seldom appears within the first ten generations, but the further back you go, the more repetition you are likely to find.

The same evening I discovered the above chart, I decided the madness had to stop. I had to get my regular life back. I had to start reading again, and I did  (I have another five books under my belt now.)

This is going to be a lifetime job - and too bad I didn't start in on it earlier. Because not only do I have to (NEED to) list all the names I can, I must now go back and fill in the blanks that made these ancestors interesting people.

I have decided that I can afford to purchase 6-month ancestry.com packages at only $12.95 a month. I don't go to movies or rent movies, Dan and I don't dine out, I buy my clothing at thrift shops, I drive an old car. I can justify this one expense, for I believe this will be a satisfying hobby for the rest of my life.

And PS, I have already discovered some very interesting people so far. Know this fella?



If so, you know how shocked and amazed I was to find him at the end (so far) of one of my Great-Grandmother Malinda's lines.

MY CELTIC GUARDIAN ANGEL TO THE RESCUE AGAIN

"The Guardian", by Sarah Butcher-Burrier

This painting speaks to me a great deal. The woman of golden brown hair and dress of typical green, being comforted once again by her Celtic guardian/warrior angel, is me. He has been my life-saving guardian angel several times, like the occasion when I escaped death from a water-filled, sinking car, and again, when I miraculously escaped what seemed to be a certain head-on collision at an intersection.

The first occasion, I merely thought, "That was a close call." (I was young then.) The second time, I consciously realized that something or someone had PREVENTED that accident. I had seen the crash coming, mere seconds from collision, and then all of a sudden, I was on the other side, myself and my car totally unscathed.



My angel has been, at other times, the fierce she-warrior with the long Celtic broadsword, instilling courage in me, such as when I confronted a bully of a boss. He/she has prevented me from physically harming another person. Guardian angels have saved my daughter's life several times over.

The angel craze, you may remember, really caught fire in the 90s, with the publication of many books on the subject. I was so proud that I, as a reporter at the Bismarck Tribune, wrote a story on angels a week or two BEFORE Newsweek and Time published their angel editions. In my story, I interviewed Sophie Burnham, whose book, "Angel Letters", had just come out.

But more importantly, I interviewed several North Dakota people whose had seen or felt the presence of angels. One lady, in fact, had been one of the letter writers in Burnham's "Angel Letters". She told of seeing guardian angels surrounding her dying grandmother's body. Another man told of being prevented from entering a certain room by an unseen hand when he was a soldier fighting overseas in World War II. A few moments later, the room was blown to bits. Another man told me of facing a dangerous confrontation on a Native American reservation. Later, after the other side had backed down, people asked him who the intimidating "big fella" was who came with him and stood closely by him while he faced down the crowd. Puzzled, he replied, "No one was with me."

The angel craze was overblown and overdone, and I, for one, became tired of all the angel statues and pictures for sale everywhere. But my guardian angel has never deserted me. Yesterday, I felt him again. I had just been wheeled into surgery when a bundle (more than necessary) of warmed blankets was tucked around me. Everyone else may have seen blankets, but I saw billowing, comforting, strong white angel wings enveloping me, and I knew I would be fine.

I had previously been quite afraid. I'm a lot older than the last time I went under the knife for a C-section 30 years ago. It's been 46 years since I had general anesthesia. But yesterday I went under totally calm and ready, no matter the outcome.

To back up a bit, until I was hired by the Secretary of State August 1, I hadn't had insurance for five years. After a one-month waiting period, I embarked on a series of long-needed medical check-ups including a mammogram and a Pap test, which were fine, and then to a gynecologist for a pelvic ultrasound for a pesky problem. All of a sudden that progressed to appointments for a uterine biopsy (not fun) and the ovarian cancer blood test (scary).

Both of those came back fine - no sign of cancer, which was a great relief. The only thing left was a follow-up ultrasound six weeks down the road. It is an understatement to say that I was shocked by what my doctor told me on Nov. 5. I totally expected to hear that I would be given a prescription and sent on my merry way. Instead, I was told that I needed surgery for a hysteroscopy, a D & C and removal of an ovarian cyst and uterine polyps. These are, she said, "seldom cancerous". What a loaded word, seldom. I was just gobsmacked.

After the surgery, I came out of anesthesia rapidly, with no wooziness, dizziness, weakness or nausea. I felt great yesterday, probably euphoric. Today I don't feel as great. I have three - yes three - incisions. I'm quite sore. The two small laparoscopic incisions are painless but the large one burns. I am very bloated, with the pumped in carbon dioxide trying to find a way out. My throat is raw from the breathing tube.

But, I am going back to work tomorrow and over the next week, while I await these new biopsy results, I will be calm, because I still feel those great white wings surrounding me.

I hope you all have at least one guardian angel to watch over you, to protect you and care about you.



Band of Brothers - Brothers in Arms

Band of Brothers from Golspie, Scotland - Willie, Archie and Jack

"Through these fields of destruction

Baptisms of fire

I've witnessed your suffering

As the battles raged higher

And though they hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms"

"Brothers In Arms", Dire Straits

On this Veteran's Day, I celebrate my own Band of Brothers/Brothers in Arms - the four Munro brothres from Scotland, the three Munro brothers from Crosby, ND, and others too - my brother, my husband, my father and his father.

Great Uncle Archibald "Archie" Munro, Canadian Army,

WWI, gassed April 1915,

Ypres, France, died in 1921 as a result

Great Uncle John Alexander "Jack" Munro,

King's Own Scottish Borders (Scotland), WWI,

Killed April 12, 1917, in France.

Awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry.

Great Uncle William Munro,

Seaforth Higlanders, Scotland,

WWI, killed Nov. 13, 1916,

in Beaumont Hamel, France

Maternal Grandfather Duncan Munro, Canadian Rifles.

WWI ended before he could be sent overseas.

Paternal Grandfather Clarence Bartell Rockney,

 (no photo available), U. S. Army "doughboy",

Served in France, WWI

Father Forrest "Sonny" Rockney, U.S. Navy, WWII

Uncle Donald Alexander Munro, U.S. Army

Served in Germany in WWII

Uncle James "Scotty" Munro, U.S. Army

Served in Germany in WWII

Uncle David Allan Munro, U.S. Army

Served in Germany, peacetime

Husband Daniel Bruce Fredericksen,

U. S. Navy, Served in Vietnam, 1968-1969

Brother John Allan Johnson

82nd Airborne (paratrooper),

U. S. Army, served in peacetime. 

For Veterans' Day 2009 I wrote an entire post devoted to Archie, William and Jack. To read it, click here: http://celticanamcara.blogspot.com/2009/11/lest-we-forget.html.

Postcard created by my Scottish 2nd cousin Shirley,

featuring William and Jack Munro and the WWI monument

in Golspie, Scotland with a backdrop of Golspie.

"At the going down of the sun

And in the morning

We will remember"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - AKA SAMHAIN



I have been away from Blogland for a month, involved in a massive genealogy project. But you don't imagine I would forget to write a Halloween post, do you? Halloween has always been my second favorite holiday, after Christmas.

I've written all sorts of Halloween posts. My topics have included a post on Halloween's origins in the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-en). It was the most important night of the year for the Celts. It was their New Year's Eve, a time when the veil between the worlds grew thin and spirits could pass over and walked among us.

I've written posts about the ancient Irish and Scottish superstitions, customs and traditions that were brought over to the New World and became the basis for modern American Halloween. For example, in Ireland, turnips were hollowed out and candles were inserted inside, becoming the first jack o' lanterns.  Imagine the colonists' surprise when they saw pumpkins and guessed what a terrific glow could shine from them!

The ancient Celts also lit huge bonfires on Samhain to drive away the dark and evil spirits, and they paraded their cattle and other livestock between bonfires to purify them.



"The Pyres of Samhain", copyright D. E. Christman

I've written about how the ancient Christian church borrowed (or stole, depending on how you look at it) Celtic Samhain from the Druids, turning it into All Hallow's Eve, the precursor to All Soul's Day. (The poster below has it wrong, LOL!)



And of course, I've written about black cats and solitary women on the fringes of society maligned as witches.



I've written posts about the way people celebrated Samhain or Halloween in the past. Ancient or not-too-far-in-the-past, they always included feasting and "parlor games", including bobbing for apples, below:



"Halloween Snap Apple Night," artist unkown

To me, Halloween has never, ever, ever (to quote Taylor Swift) been about monsters, vampires, skeletons, Dracula, Frankenstein, zombies or werewolves. When I was a child, it was all about that eerie, mysterious and yes, scary black prairie night (see illustration below), so I wrote a post about trick or treating in the 1950s in my hometown, the village of Larson, ND.

I love vintage Halloween (from the turn of the century to about 1935) and especially the glorious postcards that were produced during that era.

As the years have progressed, Halloween to me is no longer about decorating my house and yard, handing out candy or kids - and adults - dressing in costumes. As I've gotten older, I've "taken back the night" and celebrated Halloween/Samhain as Ancestor Night (I wrote a post about that too.)

The Celts truly believed that their ancestors came back to visit them on Samhain Eve, so they set a chair and a place at the table for them, and opened doors and windows to welcome them in. This year, I found a wonderful poem about remembering ancestors at Halloween:

"UPON EACH SAMHAIN"

I miss you most upon each Samhain
When the boundary turns to sheer
I wait until the veil is parted
At the ending of the year.
Sweet spirit, as you walk among us
At the tolling of this eve
I see your face beyond the sunset
And hear your voice upon the breeze.

In the glowing of the candle,
From the shadow on the wall
I watch for you in every movement
And hear your footsteps in the hall.
Can you sit and spend the evening
As the portal opens wide?
Ancestral dead, I bid you welcome,
Most recent dead, I pray, abide.

When you come I sense your presence
I put my hand out in the air
A moment, then, we stand united
Palm to palm while waiting there.
I miss you most upon each Samhain
When the boundary turns to sheer
We share these hours until the dawning
Then bid farewell until next year.

David O. Norris

The past few Halloweens I've gone out into my backyard with a lit candle and just talked to my dearly departed loved ones and some ancestors I knew about but never met. This year, thanks to my Ancestry.com search, I know about hundreds and hundreds more, and have a deeper, stronger Celtic connection than I ever dreamed of.

Tomorrow night I can go backward in time and Eastward in space and say hello to ancestors like these: Marshal Duncan Sparks, born in 1811 in Spencer County, Kentucky and died in 1839 in Vigo County, Indiana. To William Aylett, born in 1703 in Westmoreland, Virginia and died there in 1744. To Thomas Perrine Applegate, born in 1600 in England and died in 1662 in Middlesex, NJ. To Joan Mason, 1552-1624, born and died in Derbyshire, England.

No matter how you celebrate Halloween/Samhain this year, I echo the sentiments of the illustration below: