My Dad's dad came down from Ely yesterday and we visited for a couple hours. It made me realize how little I know about my dad's side of the family. Apparently they have all recently found out that my great great grandmother was either a Comanche or Apache Indian. This actually explains a lot!!
I don't even know all my Grandpa's siblings names!! I know everything there is to know about my Mom's family. I spent a lot of time with my Granny in her later years and I love history, so I asked her every question and made family trees. I have always been really close to her so I wanted to know EVERYTHING.
Yesterday I learned more about my dad's family. I love my dad and I am so grateful for the person he is. He is a good man. I am so grateful he chose to join the church and later seal us as a family. It makes my heart so full to watch him with my children and see his unconditional love for them. I am so proud of him and the sacrifices he and my mom have made for each other and for me and my siblings.
These are my great grandparents. Andrellita Perea Alderete and Carlos Alderete.
My dad moved out to the valley to live with them when he was 13 years old. They are the ones I credit to making my dad the person he is today. They were good, hard working people.
He was illiterate but she had graduated from high school. She was considered an old maid at 18 years old. They had 10 children and raised several other family members.
These are my Dad's parents.
George Alderete and Pauline Zamora Alderete
These are my dad's sisters. My younger aunt has her own blog and she prefers her name not to be used through the world wide web. So I'll just leave out their names.
When my sister's oldest daughter was born, Great Grandma Andy (as we called her) was still alive. I believe she was 95 in this picture. FIVE generations of Alderete's. My sister kind of sticks out, as she takes after my mom's side of the family. Interestingly enough, Grandma Andy's husband had blue eyes too!!
Grandpa Carlos. He was a tough old dude who knew the definition of a hard days work!!
He passed away in December of 1987 just weeks before my brother was born.
He died from stomach/esophagus cancer. I didn't know him well and have very few memories of him. My parents always laugh about how he butchered the English language.
He said things like "Shair" instead of "chair".
Or "Shina Hutch" instead of "China hutch"
And my favorite "Barney" instead of my mom's name "Bonnie"
My parents. I think they are going to a dance in the spring of 1980.
I never realized how much my brother looks like my dad. I always thought he looked like my mom's family.
My mom's parents.
Ruth and Raoul Leavitt.
I talk about my granny a lot but not my grandpa. He was a wonderful, loving man, but he got sick when I was young and suffered from severe dementia. He later needed to live at a care center when his needs became too great for my granny and my mom.
I deeply love these people and can not wait to see them again.
My mom and dad's wedding. All my mom's siblings.
Betsy, my mom, Sally, Russell, Raoul, Katie, Judy
Pat (she passed away in 2002 from colon cancer), granny, grandpa, Beulah
I love my aunts and uncles. Amazing people. Generous, caring, loud, funny, fiercely loyal, ornery as hell. Everything I have in myself!!
Wedding day.
My dad looks stoned. He's not.
Grandpa in the easy chair. He ALWAYS wore cowboy boots. And his hat. It must be on the entry table because he never left home with out it!!
He was a hard working rancher. He and Granny had nine children. Serious fertility in my back ground!!! They were both deaf and had to wear hearing aids. My grandpa was a surveyor at the test site and all the loud equipment and explosions damaged his hearing. My granny lost hers from reoccurring ear infections as a child.
My siblings.
I think this is 1989
That would makes us around
Me- 5
My sister- 8
Hiss- 2 1/2
I love my family so much. I want these pictures for my posterity and I have made the goal to stop avoiding the camera. I HAAAATTTEEEE pictures. I am NOT photogenic. But I want to try. I want my children and the generations from now to be able to know who I am.
