I believe that Family is Humanity’s rock and foundation. Family also gives us a collective of experiences and history that helps us to grow, learn and evolve. I know that who I am is started with where I came from and the experiences that brought me to this place. Who I am started with my earliest perceptions of those things that I admired in the people and traditions that surrounded me at the very beginning: Family, Love, Faith, and Traditions.
Some of my earliest memories were winter in Minnesota. I remember walking in the cold to ice skate at the local baseball diamond and freezing my toes before my sister could get my skates laced. I remember my great, great aunt speaking only Dutch and telling me “wat verboden.” I remember my grandmother forbidding us to wear outside shoes inside. I remember feeding pigs, milking cows, riding horses, fixing food from the “victory garden” and eating 5 times a day. I also remember music in the evening, singing gospel songs while several family members accompanied us with musical instruments.
We were fortunate that both sets of grandparents lived in the same town, just 60 miles from where we lived. I remember their homes much better than the ones we lived in. The one home I remember best was in a village of quonset huts built for the university my parents attended.
I also remember the day we packed up to move to California. It was so hot, we played with wax candles outside, molding them into various animals and shapes.
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