Article #219 Make Lemonade

It's not too late to start compiling a record of your life's experiences. What have you learned that you'd like to tell your posterity? Do you have any words of wisdom that could help others along their path? I know a phrase that has guided me in my life came from a long departed grandmother's wise advice...if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. During my life and trials that have come, that thought has sustained me plus knowing the love this sweet woman continues to have for me today. She is a shining example for me of can do. When I faced divorce and single parenting long after her death, I understood that trials could make you stronger. Grandma was not one to complain, but just to make the best of any situation.

Interestingly enough my maternal grandma’s maiden name was Lemmon and life delivered many lemons her way. She was child #7 in a family of a dozen Lemmons raised by humble parents in the small mining town of Silver City, Utah. Life wasn’t easy as this large family struggled to make ends meet. Grandma’s mother gave birth to a dozen children, loosing two of them in their infancy.

Would life be easier for my grandmother? No, she married at age 18 and was raising a family of five children, when suddenly her husband died of stomach cancer. Left alone there was no time to sit and mourn plus no government program to support widows and their dependent children, Grandma had to go to work immediately to survive. With little education and no marketable skills except cooking and cleaning, she took in laundry, cooked, and washed dishes in the local hotel. Eventually, she took in boarders to support her family. This hardworking woman with only a grade school education became to her progenitors, an example of a strong independent woman making the best of her circumstances making lemonade out of the lemons life presented to her.

Another saying of hers was If you put all your problems in a pile with others’ problems, you’d be happy to take your own back. How true. So the next time you are feeling overwhelmed, look back in your family ancestry for examples that can inspire you to continue this sometimes difficult journey called life. Make some lemonade along the way and become an example to your family. NEXT TIME: Celebrate