A Letter to the Past...

Maybe it has something to do with being 36... Suddenly life seems more finite than it did 20 years ago. My parents are getting older now; they will not live forever. My sisters and I are all living away from home now--have been for years. Time seems to travel a bit more swiftly these days.


Grandpa has been gone more than 15 years now. That doesn't seem possible. I still see the twinkle in his eyes and remember the sound of his laughter. Most of all, I remember the music... His accordion singing as he gently opened and closed its bellows--crooked fingers flying across the keyboard....

Grandma died when I was just a boy not much older than 5 years old. Shortly thereafter, my father's mother and father also passed. I don't remember much about them.

I have a new interest-- In genealogy. My partner started researching his family tree with great fervor and excitement. Now, I want to know about mine... Who were these men and women who came from Norway & Germany to settle in the Dakotas? I wonder if they ever dreamt into the future and imagined me-- many, many years later. Their blood runs through my veins--and yet, somehow they are lost... I want to find them... My great, great grandfather Mans Monson
Richard Busiahn... John Jacobson... Peter and Elizabeth Zenz... Adam Imhoff & Minnie Fink... Elizabeth Magstade... Theobald Mees & Suzanna Shramm... More than 100 years ago your lives made mine possible... THANK YOU!

Jerome Imhoff
San Francisco
2006