This blog has long served as my creative outlet. I was actually surprised on how little information about me and my family I have provided over these past 8 years. EIGHT years, can you believe it?!
Although this story isn't about me per-se, it is about a family member and has always made me step back and think ... this is truly a small world after all! Have you ever really had a moment, where all other coincidences seem so small in comparison?
This is a story of my Grandma Joy, my Mom's mother, and how a hat with a small town logo dug up
a long history of two families and their personal story. The photos below is of my Grandmother Joy, sent to my bestie, C, from her cousins, which she later sent to me.
There are probably many renditions of this very story, but I will tell it how I remember and what I know to be true.
When I was around 8 years old, I was put on an All-Star softball team. This consisted of girls from all over the town, on different teams, chosen to be on this select team to compete for State. I had known C, she and I went to school together the year before, and we were going to be in school together now until we finished HS. We also knew each other through Softball, which if you had played for any amount of time, you knew who everyone was. On this specific day, we were practicing, C as catcher, and myself directly in front of her in center field. The day in age where no matter how long you practiced, parents still stayed the entire time to watch and help [where did these days go??] Her father sat on the bleachers and close by was my mom and dad. J, her father was wearing a ball cap with the words, Wyaconda written visibly on the crown. You, like probably 99% of all other people would walk by and probably not even notice OR think to yourself, what the heck is Wyaconda? I am not sure who first said something, my mom or dad, but either way, one of them noticed J's hat and instantly had a connection. You see, my mother's side of the family was from Wyaconda, Missouri, a small, rural town in the Northeast part of the state. A town that would go virtually unnoticed if accidently left off the map. HOWEVER, there are a few people who do know this small town and how interesting that our families were both familiar?!
The rest of the story goes something like this ...
When my grandmother was out of High School, my now grandfather, then her fiancé, left for the Navy, leaving her behind. She moved back to her hometown, Wyaconda and began teaching in a one-room school house. Interestingly enough, back then, the teacher would live with another family during the school year. Insert C's great-grandparents. My grandmother lived with her family while teaching and living in the same area. Get that small world feeling yet? How about when her great-grandparents had a child, a daughter, they named her Joy, after my grandmother. Chills.
Now, through the power of technology and ease of sending information through family members, our "Joys" still talk and send letters. Photos of the times they lived together and shared memories are evident in photos through both sides of the family. Last Summer while visiting with my mom and Aunts, flipping through photo boxes and albums, we ran across photos of C's family. It's amazing to me how C and I found each other, and how we share this unique story.
To this day I have always thought of C as family, but this, this makes it real. I never had a sister of my own, but our friendship feels like one to me.
