As a genealogist, I come across many family migration stories. Several generations ago, many people left everything and everyone behind for a new life; often to never communicate again. Women sometimes left small children behind, men left entire families, with the intent to one day bring them over to reunite with him. There are many happy endings to these journeys; there are also relatives who were left behind posting in newspapers, searching for loved ones who they hoped made it to the promise land.
The heartbreak that occurred would be insurmountable I imagine, regardless of how tough and brave our ancestors were. And the letters traveled on ships and took what must have seemed a lifetime to reach home. And then traveled by plane. I myself recall buying special air mail paper to correspond with friends who left for Europe after college. This decision was a big one, especially in the sense of being an only child and taking the only grandchildren away from their Gramma in the States.
She was devasted when my husband had a job offer in Pittsburgh, but this? We ripped her heart out, but we took it with us.
Gramma is with us virtually now. We FaceTime on a near daily basis. She joined us just today when I brought my eldest daughter to lunch.
Good thing I have a great data plan on my iPhone! She is there with us at swim lessons, our hotel stay this past weekend, and we are there with her when she travels to Colorado to see her sister, and when she sings with the band on a night out. Gramma even gets captured in family photos while on the iPad. Gramma has watched them grow in height and vocabulary and she hears the ruckus of us trying to get them ready and out the door for school on time. When we ask our kids which country they like best to live in, the lightning-fast response is the U.
