It will be four years this November since my sister got the horrible news that she has breast cancer. She has put up the bravest fight I have ever seen, but if her doctors are accurate in their assessment of her situation it looks as if it will be a fight that she is not going to win. I read in the latest UP THE CREW, the little bulletin of HACKERS CREEK PIONEER DESCENDANTS that their president, Charlie Gilchrist, and two other members are now battling cancer. I hope for the best for all of them.
I have been personally acquainted with over 50 persons who have had or have some form of cancer. If I were to add to that list all of the persons I know about but do not personally know the list would number in the hundreds. This certainly bespeaks the "uncertainty of life" that our ancestors used to often mention in their wills, and this uncertainty is underscored even further when I think of all of the victims of car wrecks, accidents, and heart attacks that I have known. TO borrow a thought from author Millard Milburn Rice: "It's later than we think."
Among hundreds of other feelings that I have dealt with since my sister got sick is the fact that I have had to ask myself if my affairs are in order. At the time I had no life insurance. I had never much thought about it. And eventually I began to think about my collection of historical and genealogical materials. Are they in order? Could they be used and understood by someone else if something happened to me? Will they be permanent or will my heirs sat them out on the curb for the trash collector? It is much to the chagrin of one of my sons that I have told my family that if something should happen to me it is my wish that my papers and files be donated to the West Virginia and Regional History Collection at Morgantown. My son says that he wants to keep them and carry on the tradition but I have told him that I have no way to know what HIS children will think of such pursuits and I want to see the collection that I have assembled preserved and do some good for interested persons in the future. And besides, if the papers go to Morgantown (or some other library as my heirs see fit) he can always go and use them anyway.
Folks, it's later than you thank! How many odds and ends are hanging loose in YOUR life? Have you said what you wanted to say to those around you? Did you take that vacation you have been talking about? Are you putting off going back to school or looking up that long lost sibling or visiting that friend that you haven't seen in years? Have you hugged your mother lately? DO you find yourself often saying "one of these days I'll ...... "
And while we're on the subject of self-examination are your research efforts secure should something happen to you? DO you have ten years invested in writing a family book that you haven't started? Are there names written on the backs of ancestor's photos that you have collected? Will your heirs see to the preservation of your collection when you can't? Or will it all be donated to the local recycling folks?
I realized not so very long ago that for many (if not most) of us there very well may be no tomorrow. This realization turned my life upside down. I threw, out or donated 2/3 of my genealogy papers and I organized the other third, I have published several articles that I had originally intended to sit on for a while. I have started back to school. I lost 40 pounds (even though I put 20 of it beck on). But most of all I have sworn off the phrase "some day".
I'll bet that the many among us who have been struck down in their primes would agree. They would tell us to stop investing everything in some non-existent future for at the moment the future IS non-existent even for those among us who have one. What we do have is the present. And before we know it the present is the past. I hope that I can make the most of mine.
The Allegheny Regional Family History Society
Post Office Box 1804
Elkins, West Virginia, 26241
arhfs@yahoo.com
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