📝 Second Half Note:

Today I'm thinking about endings and beginnings.

I posted recently about a family loss. It reminded me of losing my mother three months after my first child was born. An ending and a beginning.

After that, my dad began work on his life story. When his hand became too shaky, I became his writer and editor. At first it was done out of duty, but then I caught the bug and tried some stories of my own.

His last written words encouraged my first. An ending and a beginning.

Did you know that back then you could find cousins in the back of genealogy magazines?

"Seeking information on Sophia Travis 1832-1890. Please write to the following address."

I was shy, but that ad nearly begged me to write! A lady named Gretchen answered, my 2nd cousin twice removed. She gave me everything she had — pictures, notes, a big printed-out thing called a GEDCOM.

It was near the end of her time as a family historian, and right at the beginning of mine.

Do you remember an ending that sparked a new beginning for you? What did it begin?