A generation apart

I learned today that one of my favorite cousins passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 98. A few moments reflection made me realize that an entire generation of my family was gone. I grew up largely in beach communities of Southern California, and Helen was part of a group composed of my grandmother and grandfather, Helen and Joe Hudson, Mary Ashbrooke, and Bobby and Ed Allatt. Forged by the Depression and WW2, they were some of the most self-reliant people I've known. Joe and Granddad learned to fly, and literally went from biplanes to the jet era with Pan Am. They built homes, raised families, and lived with an ethic that seems to be slipping into myth.

For me, I learned that hard work was always rewarded, and that honesty, thrift and other "old fashioned" values were what defined you. From Helen I learned that being kind, graceful and considerate towards others was how grown ups were meant to act. It's sad to say that so much of these social graces seem lost in our culture today.

A few years ago when "The Greatest Generation" was published, I scoffed at the idea that our current generation wasn't as good as the WW2 crowd. I felt that when called, my generation and the following ones would make the same sacrifices, endure the same hardships to keep our country great, to raise our children to be strong. Yet looking back, I try to measure myself against this group and find myself falling so short. We've grown spoiled with all this generation provided, and discarded a great deal of the values they espoused. With Helen's passing, the world is truly diminished.

love,

Cj