54 years later the Wampanoags were nearly exterminated in war with the colonists. Surviving male captives were sold to slave traders. Their families, women and children, were used as slaves in the New England colonies.
Thanksgiving eve 1989 Patti (totally able bodied) and I spent the night playing with our then 18 month daughter, taking turns with the butterball turkey on the tot slide.
In the morning Patti awoke unable to walk, see, and barely able to talk from Multiple Sclerosis, spending the remainder of the holiday weekend hospitalized.
On Thanksgiving 2001, I stood on the streets of a resurgent New York City.
Too full of parental pride as my daughter marched by in the Macy's Parade to even notice how cold it was.
On Thanksgiving 2007, I looked across the table into the smiling eyes of my youngest cousin. Premature birth, infantile myotonic muscular dystrophy, liver cancer, and months of chemotherapy and successful surgery had challenged his less than two years of life to sit at that table.
Thanksgiving memories are not Norman Rockwell paintings but rather benchmarks of the life we are given and what we choose to make of it.
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
website: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...
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