52 Ancestors in 52 weeks - #9 "Gone Too Soon" - Grace Sevald Kallman

 Prompt #9 (Feb 26-Mar 4): "Gone Too Soon" - Grace Sevald Kallman

My Dad was twelve years older than my Mom and had had several heart attacks while in his early fifties. To him this foretold that she would likely outlive him. It was not meant to be. In fact he lived some twenty five years longer than she. In the fall of 1974 my Mom was 47 and had recently been diagnosed with cancer. I think she did not want to frighten us and kept the severity of her illness to herself. Added to that is the fact that I was recently married and caught up in my own newlywed life. She died. My Dad was in disbelief, as was my grandmother, Mom's mother. I just felt numb, even as I helped my Dad notify family and friends, make arrangements, pick out a coffin etc.

The next year I was pregnant with my first child. I wanted to tell her she would be a grandmother, I wanted her advice, I wanted her to be with me when I delivered, I wanted her and the reality hit me that she was gone. I cried.

I selfishly had cried for myself but in the following years I came to see how much she had missed. I came to see how my children had missed out on having her as a grandmother. She would have been the best grandma She would have loved them so much. 

"Gone Too Soon"

My Mom
Grace Gunhild Sevald Kallman
1927-1975

From Amy Johnson Crow, a genealogist, far more experienced then I. "The data that we've accumulated in our genealogy software and in our binders and folders doesn't do a whole lot of good just sitting there. We need to do something with it." Each week she sends out a prompt to share a bit about an ancestor, collateral relative, or family friend.