Relics: Genealogy, family stories, history & other curiosities.

  Today is Father's Day and it's the first Father's Day I can't drive to the cemetery and visit my father.  I couldn't on his birthday this year or Christmas.  I know I promised I was done writing about the storm and that this blog was genealogy full steam ahead. So this may be considered genealogy adjacent.   My dad's ashes were left behind in Florida. I wanted to break him out and bring him with me but it would cost me about $4000. So I had to be practical. I needed every dime I had to move.  I will get him soon. I stopped to say goodbye and make sure the neighbor's flag wasn't blocking his name one last time right before I got on the road. I know lots of people don't like cemeteries. I know people who bury their loved ones and never go back. Those people think I am strange.  I love to visit cemeteries.  I always have.  When I was young, once or twice a year my dad, would take my nana to the cemetery to plant geraniums. She would tell me ab...

      For me the Hudson River will always mean home.     This is the final installment in my Escape from Florida series. From here on out this blog will revert back to all things genealogy and history.  Our regularly scheduled programming as it were.    We for the most part are happy to be back in the Hudson Valley. There is so much we have missed. Kids are growing, things look so different and there is so much new to explore, see and do.     Our condo in Florida is still there. Construction is said to be completed in the fall. We can not go back. I can't live in fear of what to do if another storm comes, wonder where to go to keep my mother safe. Hoping we can get a handicapped equipped hotel room far enough inland. Leaving behind all that is precious to me and hoping the water doesn't rise and wash it all away.    It's been a little over six months now and we are adjusting to our new normal.  Sometimes it surprises ...