So it's been awhile

My Dad is waiting to die. Just before Christmas, I got a phone call saying Dad had stage IV lung cancer, and he had only a few days.
He is here because doctors only PRACTICE medicine, and only God knows when someone will die.
Interestingly, Dad started telling stories... more family lore.
Dad told a story about Grandpa Swayer.

I can only hope to recall semi-accurately -- But it went something like this.....
Great great Grandpa Swayer was my Nana's dad. He was left-handed, and a farmer in Pennsylvania. The left-handed thing was important, as he had a passable ability right handed (I guess he was ambidextrous?). So, when he chopped logs, he could wield the axe either way..... when other folks chopped on the right, then jumped over the log to chop from the left, he could just stand on one side of the log.
Seemed Abe Swayer won a few contests.

My great-grandpa Abe could also shoot. Once, he was 'interviewed' for a job keeping anyone from attacking the train. Abe shot the targets off a moving train and he was hired.

I'd like to hear more of my Dad's stories. I hope he is around long enough, and that I am fortunate enough to here, many many more stories.

Family lore

Every year I vacation with my sister and her daughters. And every year there is a story. Some of the stories are the ones we make on vacation.Other stories are family lore, that my nieces really enjoy, and that my sister insists she never heard of. So, for the sake of my nieces and the family that will come after us, I have decided that once a week, there will be family lore. The stories may be true, or they may just be stories that have been handed down and embellished, but, I hope, they are GOOD stories.

I'm going to start with... how Aunt Abbie got her name.

Abbie was a first generation Irish American. Her birth date is a mystery to me, but I know she was younger than her sister, my Grandma Kay, And Grandma Kay was younger than Popsie, who was born in 1900.

When Abbie was born my great grandparents wanted to name her Deborah, with Dabbie as her nickname. Well, her godfather was given the instruction, but there was a slight hitch at the baptism. When the priest asked for the baby's name, he said 'Dabbie'.
The priest responded that Dabbie, was not a saints name. So her godfather searched his memory for the name of a saint, and came up with Cecilia.
Cecilia she was named, but  always her family called her Abbie. I know this because when I was confirmed, I asked the family for a saints name as my confirmation name, and Aunt Abbie shared her name of Cecilia.

I was happy with the name, and even happier with the story. And so, on my confirmation, I became Lisa Anne Cecilia Schmidt