"theres nothing worse than the complete and total agony of being in love"
So last night i discovered this website called ancestry.co.uk. basically you type in your name your trying to research and it brings up a message board with posts/responces for every time its been posted on the site. its pretty cool.
i learned a lot of things i didn't know about my family. though some things are better left unknown... apparently my g-grandfather abandoned his family when my grandpa len was just a baby, and started a whole new line of Hardke's with another woman. my g-grandmother told her children he had died of some illness, so no one ever found out about their half siblings, and vise versa. its weird.. its like one big family split down the middle.. and just going off in different directions. never touching. kinda sad. :(
but i also learned some other really cool stuff. on my momma's side, there's a whole town her ancestors founded or something, -- i dont know, but they lived there and its named after them! Mhoontown, Alabama! ("ma-hoon town")! .. that doesnt sound hick at all, does it?! apparently its now Colbert, Alabama. but i guess they're super proud of the cemetery...
"Cemeteries dot the countryside around Cherokee (a town in alabama), like freckles of the face of a small boy. Pride Cemetery, Smith Cemetery, Malone Cemetery and Lane Cemetery all tell just a little of the history surrounding the area, but MHOONTOWN Cemetery holds a special fascination for many of the residents. Perhaps it’s the tombs- the six great marble and granite slabs which remind all who see them the people buried underneath were something special. The 12 foot monuments are the dominant feature of the cemetery, leaping into view as soon as the final turn in the road to the gravesite is made. Perhaps it’s the setting- the tall ancient fir trees which issue almost humanlike groans when the wind blows or the haunting isolation of the well-manicured cemetery and church grounds. At any rate, for many years the citizens of Cherokee and the surrounding area have told their children tales of the burial place that is older than the state itself.
Probably many a child has lain awake after his grandmother told him of the Mhoon ghosts walking about at midnight, or of the gold that supposedly was buried with the owners under the weathered tombs. Or maybe the child wondered how the robbers got to the top of George Mhoon’s tomb to steal the fortune that was reportedly hidden in the huge urn there. But while citizens of the area told their children these stories, they themselves wondered just who the Mhoons were and what made them come to the country that was then so wild and unsettled... " hehe pretty neat!
my grandma is the last Mhoon left standing...as of today.. at least that we know of. i'm sure there are tons of distant relatives walking around out there... i'm doubting grandma will want to be buried in the historic Mhoontown cemetery, though... as honorable as it is... haha.
my mom's aunt died today. we're going up to riverside for the funeral this friday. surprisingly my mom and grandma aren't too sad. apparently her daughter has given up her life being her personal 24h servant. (aunt jean has been bedridden for the last 10 years)... its sad, she blames herself for not doing CPR correctly. she was dead for 8 minutes before they got her to the hospital, where they brought her back. over the last 24 hours her heart stopped a total of 5 times... they just kept bringing her back.. which seemed a little odd to me because she already had brain damage, so the best they could really expect was for her to be in a coma for the rest of her life. anyway, my grandma sounds relieved, so that makes me feel better. its better this way. ... not that its my place to make that observation, but i think most people would agree.
on a selfish note, it'll be nice to see my family again. its been a while. like cousin rick. he's a real cool guy.
I saw love actually again tonight! i'm so in love with that movie, its not even funny. we went to papachino's for dinner, then panikan for post-dinner coffee/italian soda. we chatted for hours as always.. while a man sitting near us drew our faces in his little notebook. he was quite talented. btw, selena, did you notice that? remind me next time we see eachother... hehe
tomorrow is maggie's wedding. i'm pretty excited.
and then we only have 3 days of school.
and then jessica is taking me snowboarding!!!
and then ... funeral.
alright, its 3. i'm way too sleepy. GOODNIGHT!!!!!!
i learned a lot of things i didn't know about my family. though some things are better left unknown... apparently my g-grandfather abandoned his family when my grandpa len was just a baby, and started a whole new line of Hardke's with another woman. my g-grandmother told her children he had died of some illness, so no one ever found out about their half siblings, and vise versa. its weird.. its like one big family split down the middle.. and just going off in different directions. never touching. kinda sad. :(
but i also learned some other really cool stuff. on my momma's side, there's a whole town her ancestors founded or something, -- i dont know, but they lived there and its named after them! Mhoontown, Alabama! ("ma-hoon town")! .. that doesnt sound hick at all, does it?! apparently its now Colbert, Alabama. but i guess they're super proud of the cemetery...
"Cemeteries dot the countryside around Cherokee (a town in alabama), like freckles of the face of a small boy. Pride Cemetery, Smith Cemetery, Malone Cemetery and Lane Cemetery all tell just a little of the history surrounding the area, but MHOONTOWN Cemetery holds a special fascination for many of the residents. Perhaps it’s the tombs- the six great marble and granite slabs which remind all who see them the people buried underneath were something special. The 12 foot monuments are the dominant feature of the cemetery, leaping into view as soon as the final turn in the road to the gravesite is made. Perhaps it’s the setting- the tall ancient fir trees which issue almost humanlike groans when the wind blows or the haunting isolation of the well-manicured cemetery and church grounds. At any rate, for many years the citizens of Cherokee and the surrounding area have told their children tales of the burial place that is older than the state itself.
Probably many a child has lain awake after his grandmother told him of the Mhoon ghosts walking about at midnight, or of the gold that supposedly was buried with the owners under the weathered tombs. Or maybe the child wondered how the robbers got to the top of George Mhoon’s tomb to steal the fortune that was reportedly hidden in the huge urn there. But while citizens of the area told their children these stories, they themselves wondered just who the Mhoons were and what made them come to the country that was then so wild and unsettled... " hehe pretty neat!
my grandma is the last Mhoon left standing...as of today.. at least that we know of. i'm sure there are tons of distant relatives walking around out there... i'm doubting grandma will want to be buried in the historic Mhoontown cemetery, though... as honorable as it is... haha.
my mom's aunt died today. we're going up to riverside for the funeral this friday. surprisingly my mom and grandma aren't too sad. apparently her daughter has given up her life being her personal 24h servant. (aunt jean has been bedridden for the last 10 years)... its sad, she blames herself for not doing CPR correctly. she was dead for 8 minutes before they got her to the hospital, where they brought her back. over the last 24 hours her heart stopped a total of 5 times... they just kept bringing her back.. which seemed a little odd to me because she already had brain damage, so the best they could really expect was for her to be in a coma for the rest of her life. anyway, my grandma sounds relieved, so that makes me feel better. its better this way. ... not that its my place to make that observation, but i think most people would agree.
on a selfish note, it'll be nice to see my family again. its been a while. like cousin rick. he's a real cool guy.
I saw love actually again tonight! i'm so in love with that movie, its not even funny. we went to papachino's for dinner, then panikan for post-dinner coffee/italian soda. we chatted for hours as always.. while a man sitting near us drew our faces in his little notebook. he was quite talented. btw, selena, did you notice that? remind me next time we see eachother... hehe
tomorrow is maggie's wedding. i'm pretty excited.
and then we only have 3 days of school.
and then jessica is taking me snowboarding!!!
and then ... funeral.
alright, its 3. i'm way too sleepy. GOODNIGHT!!!!!!