A photo of my Mom appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1943. She would have been sweet sixteen at the time. The section with the full page picture was published in living color. I suppose it would have been new technology during the War. A cherished copy is tucked away in an old album. The colors are faded now; but real.
Mom sits in a classroom looking up at a uniformed GI. It’s a close-up. Behind her on a black board are chalked mathematical formulas, complicated but clear. The soldier holds a balsawood model of a winged fighter plane and looks as though he’s explaining some complicated principle of aerodynamics or airborne engagement with the enemy. She smiles with delight. In each hand she holds a knitting needle. She listens intently working the stitches without the need to look down. On her head, she wears a cap with a Red Cross. Her white uniform identifies her as a volunteer. She’s young, pretty and symbolizes a community’s commitment to the war effort. Behind her, Old Glory. She’s a daughter of the Windy City, Chicago. And she’s the daughter of a nation at War – with victory in her sights.
She was the kind of young citizen Ken Burns highlights in his seven episode fifteen hour retrospective on World War II aired on PBS. America may never repeat the national commitment to the war effort that those four years demanded. Franklin D. Roosevelt led the nation out of a depression. And then, he led the nation through the inevitable involvement in a world war that was triggered by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mom was in high school.
She knew the dark turmoil of the depression years. Her mom and dad barely kept the rent paid and food on the table during those hard days when employment was scarce and the weather harsh. What she experienced during that cruel era she rarely talks about.
This photo is a treasure. You don’t see the pain of a complicated childhood. You see instead the optimism and hope that lit the smile and signaled what would become a lifetime of service and care.
It was a sailor who captured her heart.
Ken Burns has created another masterpiece in The War. Using original photographs and sixteen millimeter newsreel footage, letters and interviews, he traced the history from beginning to end on both sides of the globe. The perspective he chose was from the small towns in America who sent their men to war. He focused on the universal war effort that turned factories into twenty-four hour a day munitions machines. Ships and tanks and cannon and rifles and sleek fighter planes and high-altitude bombers and countless uniforms and boots became the products that flowed off the assembly-lines until both the European and Pacific theaters were thick with the weapons of war. It’s an amazing story.
Mom and dad found each other during those days. They started their life in the post-war era that gave us Ike and Leave It to Beaver.
So now we’ve been together all these years. Back then, we predicted what life might be like after the year Two Thousand. We imagined that everyone would fly in their personal airplanes and that the world would be wired to nuclear power plants and we pictured a landscape that looked something like the animated utopia the Jetsons called home. We didn’t even think of a thing called the Internet. But the year two thousand has come and gone and it doesn’t look much like we imagined it would.
We still drive internal combustion automobiles and talk on telephones and watch television.
Mom is about to begin her ninth decade. In so many ways, she is still the same woman she was in that photograph. Her smile still draws people in. Her warmth brings healing and hope. Her laughter livens up the room. Conversation is her life.
Everyone wants time with her. The children. The spouses. The grandchildren. The great-grandchildren. They want to tell her their stories. They want to hear her advice. They want to tap into her faith.
All fifty-two of us will celebrate, along with a host of her favorite friends. We’ll celebrate the memories.
But mostly, we’ll wonder where the years went.
* * * * * * *
It’s Monday morning. You are a leader. The years have come and gone and some things remain.
The most important things. Like family and faith and optimism and hope – a smile from underneath a Red Cross, knitting needles in hand, listening to the words of a starry-eyed visionary paint a picture of victory and conquest with the formulas in place and the red-white-and-blue signaling the identity of a Grand Old Flag that declares liberty and gives assent to the pursuit of happiness.
It’s all there. This Monday morning.
Thanks, Mom.
Copyright Kenneth E Kemp October 2007
Ken, your mom looks great! Happy Birthday to her and I hope you all enjoy celebrating her birthday! Love the story about her and that picture of her when she was 16 is fabulous!
Birthday blessings on Mom and all the family. Thanks for sharing this personal glimpse into your heritage. Psalm 71:17-18.
Bud
What a great way to start our day! Happy Birthday to your Mom! What a great light in the darkness she is for Christ
Love you Ken,
Jerry and Ann
I was so happy when I saw that my dad had forwarded a LeaderFOCUS to me this morning! I always enjoyed reading them every Monday morning at work and have missed them!
I loved the one about your mom and loved that old picture of her! She is a very special lady to me!
Thanks Ken 🙂 Happy Monday!
Kristi Cox
Vanguard University
I feel so blessed to call this wonderful woman my Dear Friend. Her wonderful laugh, her constant curiosity, and her great wisdom enrich me.
“Her children arise and call her blessed”…as do all of us who know her.
Happy Birthday, Lorry!
Love to the the whole Kemp family.
Gloria Edwards
A very happy birthday to mom. She is a very special lady, loved by all who have the privilege to know her.
Miss you Ken,
Gena
Ken, we enjoyed seeing and reading about your mom. We also wish her a happy birthday. She looks great. Enjoyed your slide show on Hawaii, and seeing Mark’s hotrod. You have made him famous. Thanks for including us. We always enjoy your writing! You have a great gift there. Our love to you, Carolyn and your mom.
God bless all of you, Jim and Rosalie
Hey Ken,
Your mom still has a great smile. Happy Birthday to her, and you all have a great celebration!
Scott
Hi Ken,
What a neat story of your mom.
It seems that everyone during those difficult times worked together and pulled whatever resources they had. Alton Brown was just talking about in “Good Eats” canning and how communities shared wherehouses to can foods they grew so they would not starve. I don’t know if our world is so community focused today, or if it would be every man, woman or family for themselves. It is sad to me that with all of the advancement in technology we would as a nation have learned better ways to live together and share resources in community rather than always competing.
Your story has given me much to think about. Please wish your mom a very happy birthday.
Heather
Ken:
Your affinity for your mother is obvious – and now the rest of us have a small glimpse as well. I particularly appreciated your description of her photo when you stated “You see instead the optimism and hope that lit the smile and signaled what would become a lifetime of service and care.” That is a fine description of someone whose life is characterized by hope. Muy bueno and well done. Keep it up!
Clint
Very well written Uncle Ken! She truly is just like that. Grant and I so wish we could have been there at the party to celebrate this amazing and wonderful grandma. Hope you all had a great time and I know grandma Lorry couldn’t have felt more loved and appreciated as she does by her children and grandchildren and now even great grandchildren.
I am so glad you started writing the Leadership focus again. Keep em coming!
Love Therese