Our family enjoyed talking about some of our ancestors on Day of the Dead last year, so I decided to celebrate it again this year, complete with gingerbread skeletons.
This year we talked about Margaret Amelia Pedersen, my dad's grandmother. She was really a remarkable woman. As a child, she lovingly helped her father (who had lost his hands in a farming accident) by combing his hair, putting on his shoes, and assisting him with the farm equipment. Her husband died of a sudden illness when their youngest children (a pair of twins) were seven years old, and Margaret managed to run the farm and keep the family together even through the Great Depression. She was practically blind for the last years of her life, but she was such a self-reliant and positive person that most people didn't know it. They just knew her as a good friend who was a pleasure to be around.
Incidentally, when I look at the picture of Margaret and her handsome husband, I'm always struck by how much my dad looks like his grandpa.
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