Pay it forward - Part II

The 1930's were tough years for most people living in the Midwestern states and through out the US. The stock market crash in 1929 sent most people into financial ruin. The dirty 30's as they were called were literally dirty. It was bad enough that most people were struggling trying to survive the bank closures but now to have their farms wiped out by dust storms too - it was all just too much! Unless you were living at that time it is hard to imagine these dust storms that would darken the sky and bury the crops, piling up against the house like snow drifts would in the winter. If you're interested in seeing some fabulous pictures of what these storms looked like check out Wikpedia - I couldn't believe it when I saw them.

We live in such a different time than the 1930's, we don't think to much about people getting divorced or young girls having babies out of wedlock. We accept these things as just part of life taking most things in our stride. Not so in the 1930's when LT was born, the young mothers would usually go to homes that were set up for young girls to stay until there babies were born and those children were almost always put up for adoption. Their absence at home was explained that they are staying with a sick Aunt in another state or some reason like that. Sometimes even the closest family members were unaware of the baby.

The laws governing the privacy of adoption are pretty strict and usually the birth mother has no idea who the adoptive parents are nor do the adoptive parents know who the birth mother is. It appears that Gretchen may have known the adoptive parents of her little boy because she wrote letters to the family expressing her concern for her son. She wrote of how she wished she could have kept him. Can you imagine the ache in this woman's heart to hold her little boy? From all accounts though she gave him to a family who loved him dearly and who were very good to him. So hopefully she found some peace with that knowledge.

There's something about that blood bond though that is unbreakable and now almost 73 years later "The Ties That Bind" drive this man's son and daughter-in-law to find Gretchen and his roots for him. With a little help from new friends and recently found relatives they will have their answers - I just know it!!

(Come back and visit my blog again to see the amazing amount of information that has been located about the Buntjer family of Blue Hill and Rosemont, Nebraska....)