FEAR

In 1673 did Maggie say to Bill, "Oh honey, I'm sooo afraid of water you know, and I'm not feeling too well right now, with the baby coming and all, and what if there are no good midwives in New Jersey?  And, you know, Nate and Tommy are only two and three years old, they'll miss me something fierce if I go with you on this trip!  And if they come with us, who will watch them?  I won't be able to run after them, you know, and they really are so VERY active!  I'm afraid for them, and for me, and for the baby, and what if something happens to you?  I really think that it's impossible for me to face all this!  How about I just stay here in Sunninghill where it's safe and I'm not so afraid?" 

No.  Well maybe, but she delivered her third son on March 12, 1673 in New Jersey.  If she was  afraid, she didn't let it stop her.

In, say about 1715 or so, did Beth say to Tom, "I'm scared to leave New Jersey, and really I think six sons are enough children for us, so why don't we just call it good enough, stay where we're at, and be done with it?"

I have my doubts on that one.  Somehow, I don't see Elizabeth Day Branson fearing much of anything, although the time and place  would no doubt have given ANY woman cause for concern.  The fact remains that she did NOT stop at six sons but had six more children, three of which were actually girls - Sarah, Mary, and Elizabeth.  There MUST have been times when she was afraid, but she managed anyway.

In 1735 or thereabout, did Becky Borden Branson say to Junior, or to herself, "WHAT was I THINKING?  I'm NOT cut out for this!  I want to go back to my father's home and let someone ELSE do everything for me!  I just can't DO this any more!" 

If she did, we'll never know.  She did what she had to do and that was that.

The time of Keziah Hough and Eli was just before, during, and after the American Revolution.  Do NOT try to tell me that she never felt fear.  One of the few ways we have of figuring out where Eli was at any given time is by looking at the birth dates of their children.  Those were troubling times in more ways than one.

Still, she made it through and lived to a ripe old age.

In the last part of the 1700's and first part of the 1800's, did Sarah Jones Branson fret John about relocating?  Was she afraid of the pioneering, the traveling from the Carolinas to Ohio to Illinois?  Did the prospect of the frontier frighten her?  Probably. 

She went.  She raised her eleven children during their westward trek; it could NOT have been EASY, and HAD to have been downright SCARY at times.  But she did it. 

The first half of the 1800's belong to AJ and Susannah Wilkinson Branson.  They were in Illinois and things were changing right and left around them.  They both died about ten years after the Civil War wrapped up; relatives must have been fighting on both sides but I doubt neutrality was an option.  The whole thing must have been intense and difficult, to put it mildly.  A nation torn apart; families shredded; loyalties divided. 

Susannah lived through it, frightened though she must have been. 

Emily Francis Cole Branson and Levi get the second half of the 1800's; they were in Illinois still although Emily had been born in Kentucky.  They had eight children born in the 1850's/60's, right during that Civil War Era when everything was so chaotic. 

Emily made it through in one piece. 

Mary Jane McCord Branson and Samuel Levi were my great-grandparents, and the last half of the 1800's was their time.  States were settling, people were moving west, and they were in western Kansas when they were raising their family and they had a potload of kids, including my grandfather.  I can be reasonably certain that there were times that Mary Jane was scared half to death, what with one thing and another. 

Mary Jane did not give up; she did not give in. 

My grandparents were born early in the 1900's and had a very young family during the years of the Great Depression.  Do you reckon maybe Helen Gibson Branson might maybe have been terrified a time or two? 

Helen Gibson Branson did not let fear paralyze her.  Her words to me:  Keep Your Chin UP.

My mother, Wauna Lee Blanton Branson (married Robert Samuel) not only kept her chin up, she took on her world and beat the ever livin' crap out of it.  Not literally, but there's no way this woman will be able to EVER come close to her accomplishments, which she achieved despite some quite very bad times. 

Me, if all I have to worry about is a fear of heights and getting my roof fixed and finished all by my lonesome in spite of being scared, I think maybe I can manage it.  If they could do it, so can I. 

One thing about having a family history, even only one branch of it, is that it helps put things into perspective.  I have bits and pieces of all those women in me, in my DNA, and knowing what I do of the times they lived through, all the things they would have had to cope with - and the fact that they DID cope - well, I'm sure as hell not going to be the first of my line to give up or give in to FEAR. 

So there.