Family
You may have noticed how novels about the Amish feature families -- often large families. That's because the Amish consider children God's greatest gift. Since the Amish in years past lived on farms (that's changing in some areas as farm land becomes scarce and expensive), who could envision a better place to raise children than a farm surrounded by all that space, with all that abundance? And as the children grew, they learned important lessons about responsibility as they began doing chores and so they were an asset to running the farm as well.
My maternal grandparents immigrated to this country from Sweden. Mom and her twin were the seventh and eighth children in a family of nine. She and her siblings loved the farm they grew up on in a small town in Indiana and visited it with their own children for many years. (As an adult, I felt sorry for the son who inherited the farm because it became the family hotel some vacations!). Today, my mother and her siblings would be helped by English as a Second Language (ESOL) teachers since they had to learn English quickly when they were enrolled in school. We work hard at helping international students at the aeronautical university where I teach English part-time but there was no ESOL back in my mother's time. It must have been so hard for Mom and my aunts and uncles to acclimate. But she's told me that when they played with other children, they found a way to communicate.
My dad is a twin as well -- isn't that bizarre? So I've been fascinated by twin relationships for years. I was alternately frightened by and hopeful that I'd have twins but that didn't happen. I did have two children, a boy and a girl, fairly close together (22 1/2 months apart) and that was hard enough. We decided we were happy with the two we had and stopped there. Perhaps I'll have twin grandchildren someday. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll content myself with working on a story about twin Amish sisters for a second novella collection after An Amish Christmas. More details on that later.
Did you come from a small or a large family? How do you think that affected your life and the family you wanted to have?
And on a special note, congratulations to Beth and Amy who included such great reviews on their books coming out this month!
Have a good weekend everyone!
Barbara
My maternal grandparents immigrated to this country from Sweden. Mom and her twin were the seventh and eighth children in a family of nine. She and her siblings loved the farm they grew up on in a small town in Indiana and visited it with their own children for many years. (As an adult, I felt sorry for the son who inherited the farm because it became the family hotel some vacations!). Today, my mother and her siblings would be helped by English as a Second Language (ESOL) teachers since they had to learn English quickly when they were enrolled in school. We work hard at helping international students at the aeronautical university where I teach English part-time but there was no ESOL back in my mother's time. It must have been so hard for Mom and my aunts and uncles to acclimate. But she's told me that when they played with other children, they found a way to communicate.
My dad is a twin as well -- isn't that bizarre? So I've been fascinated by twin relationships for years. I was alternately frightened by and hopeful that I'd have twins but that didn't happen. I did have two children, a boy and a girl, fairly close together (22 1/2 months apart) and that was hard enough. We decided we were happy with the two we had and stopped there. Perhaps I'll have twin grandchildren someday. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll content myself with working on a story about twin Amish sisters for a second novella collection after An Amish Christmas. More details on that later.
Did you come from a small or a large family? How do you think that affected your life and the family you wanted to have?
And on a special note, congratulations to Beth and Amy who included such great reviews on their books coming out this month!
Have a good weekend everyone!
Barbara
My mom and dad only had my sister and myself. But on my dad's side of the family is very large. My grandparents had 7 kids and my aunts and uncles had lots of them also. There are 27 grandchildren, not including spouses, 32 great grandchildren.
We had a news paper article in the paper about our loving and large family. It truly wonderful we spent all the holidays together at my grandma and grandpa's house. It was the most wonderful thing we had until my grandparents got sick and had to go into a nursing home. Our family fell apart and devastated most of us. No one gets to gather any longer it's like we weren't that close family that got together all the time. That's all gone
I know my girls are missing this as well.
Blessings, CarolG
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Hi Carol G,
Families are so spread out these days. It's no wonder my mom has so many photos of her siblings and children and grandchildren there. But she IS very happy there with so many friends and activities. Maybe since we're all living longer and are healthier we won't be in nursing homes and can be with family more in the future!
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I did like this article and I already replied back regarding it.
Blessings, CarolG
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My dad came from a family of 9 children and lived on a farm in the river valley of eastern Arkansas. His parents were German born and when the children attended the Catholic church in their farming community, the nuns would scold the parents if the children did not know enough English to start learning. Having a large family during the depression was hard but the family worked together from dawn to dusk to raise their own food and enough to sell at a farmers market to help supplement the family income.
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How neat--they had nine, too! English is very hard to learn--what a shame someone gave them a hard time!
I bet the family working together was a good experience. We don't have enough of that these days.
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Hi Barbara, I loved your post! My mom was a twin and when she recently passed away, I had a long conversation with my aunt about the connection between them. She expressed that it was like losing a part of herself when my mom died. I look forward to reading your book, and hope it will give me special insight into how my mom must have felt toward her own sister. Take care and God bless!
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So sorry to hear your mom lost her twin recently--and you lost your aunt as well.
I have heard twins say that they feel that they have lost a part of themselves when one dies. I'm taking my mom -- soon to be 87 -- to see her twin who lives on the other side of the state as an early Mother's Day/birthday gift. Who knows how long they'll have each other.
God bless you, too, and thanks to you and everyone who posted!
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Interesting re your family - mine only had 2 children, me being the youngest, and I never expected or wanted many children (had one only that died). My dad's fam was Irish, large, however.
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How interesting that your dad came from a large Irish family yet only had two children, and then you didn't expect or want many...I'm so curious about how we come to these decisions.
I am so sorry to hear about your child. I know it must have been a blow and such a huge loss.
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I believe twins are born every other generation. I am excited about your twin novel! My twin and I were born in 1946. We were identical twins. We were prematurely born and neither of us were expected to live. My twin lived 8 hours and then died. My parent's did not know they were having twins. In fact, my mother and father were expecting a boy and already had a name selected (Timothy) so, it was a shock to find out they not only had twins but girls. Since they did not expect either of us to survive our names were selected quickly from the Bible. We were named Martha Fay and Mary Kay.
Again, I will be looking forward to your next novel about twins living in the Amish family.
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Hi Martha,
How sad that you lost your twin. I always wondered what it would be like to grow up with a twin and prayed for a sister. I got a brother who didn't want to be bothered with a girl. By the time I got a sister she was eight years younger and it felt like we were a generation apart.
The research on twins I've found has revealed conflicting theories about them skipping a generation. I'm hoping more research will solve that mystery for me. In the meantime, my daughter says not to count on her to prove or disprove it! : )
By the way, my grandparents were surprised by the twins, too. They were born in May so their names are May and June!
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I always wanted a sister too. I have a brother that is 14 years older than I am and a brother that is 5 years older than I am. I am very close with both of my brother's .
Isn't it very interesting how parent's name their children. How neat that the twins were named May and June. Thank you for sharing that information.
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