Cemetery Road Trip: tradition!

Posted on May 26, 2015 by freshcron

M. Russell Ballard said, “Create meaningful family bonds that give your children an identity stronger than what they can find with their peer group or at school or anyplace else. This can be done through family traditions for birthdays, for holidays, for dinnertime, and for Sundays.“

I am a firm believer in this philosophy. Traditions are what keep our families strong, united, and glued together. We have created many family traditions in our 48 years of marriage, but the most important for me is one carried over from my childhood – Memorial Day.

For our family, this is not a day to go boating or camping or doing yard work, etc., but it is a day to honor our deceased family members, especially those who served our country. When my dad returned from World War II, he joined the Borgstrom Brothers VFW Post in Tremonton, Utah, and began a life of service to others.

You may have heard of the Borgstrom Brothers. “World War II took the lives of many Utahns, but no family in the state sacrificed more for the Allied cause than Alben and Gunda Borgstrom of Thatcher, Box Elder County. Four of the five sons they sent off to battle died within a six-month period during 1944. ‘Few families in American history have been called upon to make such a tremendous sacrifice for the cause of freedom and liberty,’ one speaker noted at ceremonies honoring the Borgstrom brothers in 1946.”

The four Borgstrom brothers from Thatcher, Utah

LeRoy Elmer Borgstrom, born April 30, 1914; drafted into the Army on November 7, 1942; served in medical unit of the 361st Infantry, 91st Division; killed in action in Italy on June 22, 1944.

Clyde Eugene Borgstrom, born February 15, 1916; enlisted in the Marines on October 14, 1940; killed in action on March 17, 1944, at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

Rolon Day Borgstrom, twin, born May 5, 1925; drafted into the Army on July 7, 1943, two weeks after High School Graduation; shipped overseas in June 1944 as an aerial gunner; died in England on August 8, 1944 of injuries suffered during a bombing mission over France and Germany.

Rulon Jay Borgstrom, twin, born May 5, 1925; drafted into the Army on July 7, 1943, two weeks after High School Graduation; also a gunner on a heavy bomber; killed in action on August 25, 1944, two and a half weeks after his twin brother Rolon.

Boyd Carl Borgstrom, born July 21, 1921, in Thatcher; had enlisted on October 14, 1940, with his brother Clyde; shipped from the South Pacific to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, after his fourth brother was missing in action; discharged on October 7, 1944.

Riverview Cemetery in Tremonton, Utah, where the Borgstrom Brothers are buried within steps of our family plot.

For me, the most important of the VFW service projects took place on Memorial Day. I was thrilled as a little girl to watch my dad and the other veterans march into the cemetery in full uniform, carrying their rifles. I got chills when I watched them raise the flag and then in almost fearful anticipation waited to hear that 21-gun salute. It was loud, but it thrilled me to the core. That picture is forever etched in my mind.

As soon as we returned from our seven years in California, my husband and I started taking our little girls to the cemeteries on Memorial Day to place flowers on the graves of grandmas and grandpas. It was a great way to introduce our children to the people they had never known, but had been very important in our lives.

Yesterday (May 25, 2015) marked the 40^th anniversary of that family tradition for us.

As each of the girls married, I informed their husbands that Memorial Day was sacred in our family and that our holiday would be spent performing the service for which it was intended. Those boys like to mumble every year just to get a reaction, but they have not missed a year of decorating graves with us. I appreciate that more than they know.

A few years ago, I made a book for each family to read as we went from cemetery to cemetery with an explanation of why the holiday is so important to me and a short history of each person we honor, both friends and family.

A sampling of pages in the Memorial Day book

Also included are Memorial Day word search puzzles and some trivia to keep the grandkids busy during the 80 mile drive. In the back of the book are pictures taken at the cemeteries each year.

So if you haven’t already, start some family traditions that have deep meaning, traditions that teach, traditions that keep the family together.

Peek-A-Boo, I See You: a life that will live forever

Posted on May 20, 2015 by freshcron

My mom is now 93.5 years strong.

She was the quintessential farm wife, keeping the home fires burning while keeping two mischievious and inquisitive boys from burning down the house.

She cooked big midday meals in between growing a garden and plucking chickens. She did piles of laundry and then ironed all the tablecloths, pillowcases, dishtowels, handkerchiefs and anything else that was flat. She encouraged her three daughters to design their own clothes and then bought the fabric and sewed it up just right (including prom and wedding dresses). She budgeted the small amount of farm income while providing wonderful birthdays and holidays, not to mention the most amazing Christmases. AND she was the constant companion to her equally hardworking husband. The list goes on and on, and I don’t know how she managed to do it all. Oh, and did I mention that she worked as a bookkeeper for several businessmen in the area?

She raised five children.

She was an attentive sister to three siblings. She was a loving and dedicated daughter.

She gathered her big extended family together each year for a Labor Day reunion.

And yet somehow in the middle of that very busy life, she managed in a 2-year period in her early 70’s to write the histories of her mother, her father, her grandmother, herself, and the Bronson, Lyon, and Wilcox families.

After dad died in 2002, she added to the history she had encouraged him to write and had it printed for all of us. She wrote seven books in all, beautifully written and including pictures and documents. This is what I call leaving a legacy!

What does she do now?

She blesses teenage girls with her musical talents and her love.

She serves and cares for her neighbors, crochets beautiful gifts, still makes bread every week, and is the matriarch and example to her family of 75+.

Mom is not one of those people who will be forgotten. She has created a lasting legacy, not only in what she has accomplished, but in who she really is.

Peek-A-Boo, I See You: 1000 words

Posted on May 12, 2015 by freshcron

Does a picture really paint a thousand words? For me, a picture paints a thousand memories. There are many things that I only really remember because I have pictures to document. I saw some pictures in my daughter’s album Sunday of 10-12 of us seated around her dining table with Mad Hatter hats made from paper bags that we had created and decorated. I looked at that picture (and I was in it) and realized I had absolutely no recollection of the event! She was the only one with a picture. It made me wonder how many other wonderful and crazy events in my life are missing from memory because I was not carrying a camera.

After all, isn’t that why we take pictures? To remember? We all have a few pictures of ancestors we never met, and priceless those are to us. I have two favorites, one of my Grandma Bronson who I knew well, and one of my Great-grandma Wilcox who died before I was born.

Marguerite Wilcox Bronson with baby, Beth

Not only is this a precious picture of my Grandma Bronson taken in about 1913/14, but it has an interesting story. We have pieced together the information that was handed down, but only Grandma knows all the facts, and she has been gone for over 40 years. Bottom line, she was young when she had this baby, and the baby was raised by Grandma’s parents. My dad didn’t even know of the existence of this older sister until he was almost an adult.

Eliza Snow Lyon on the right and her sisters

Grandma Bronson’s mother was 20 years old, living at home with her family in Salt Lake City in the late 1800’s, when a young man from Omaha – Charles Emery Wilcox – came to Utah to work on the new streetcars. Eliza’s brother had a rooming house and Charles was staying there. Who wouldn’t be smitten by this beautiful young lady? And of course the rest is history.

Now with everyone packing a cell phone, we have no excuses for having no pictures – unless you are like me – the one taking all the pictures. And I don’t do selfies – short arms, big head, short neck – these all shout “say no to selfies.” So if I am going to be remembered through pictures, I have to make sure I hand off the phone/camera to someone else occasionally. I think through the years I’ve managed to capture the real me!

A glimpse into my life through picture – the good, the bad, the dorky!

But one of my pet peeves is that with all the digital photos, most are on a phone, a computer, or a backup system. They are often not printed out and put in books anymore – and I think that’s a shame! I love when my grandkids gather around my photo albums to laugh, chat, and remember. After all, that’s what photos are for, right?