I really love our mission.
It's fulfilling to help people find names to take to the temple.
It's been inspiring to hear the stories of people and their families; some heartbreaking, some inspiring.
It's disheartening when I can't find a lost relative or something to help them. I don't like those days.
But, recently, it was a great day. It's not that I did anything that anyone else couldn't have done, but the family search library has access to some sites that people at home don't have, so I was able to help my neighbor.
Mike had told us that his father died when Mike was nine. But, he knew so little about the circumstances of his father's death and knew very little of his father, other than he had been born in Lebanon.
So, after he gave me his father's name, I went to a site that has newspaper obituaries and found his father's obituary. It listed quite a bit of information about Mike's dad; all of which Mike and siblings had never known. His father had graduated from a Catholic high school and had gone to college in Chicago. Also, the name of the building where he fell to his death was listed, which Mike and his siblings had never known.
Yesterday, Mike and his older brother made a trip to see the building, which has since been torn down, but he found a picture of the building at an historical library. He drove to the spot where the building was; he told me tears were shed as he was piecing together some parts of his father's life he had never known.
I didn't do anything noteworthy, but because I had access to some sites, I was able to find the information he had yearned for since 1952.
I am grateful for days like that.
And, Mike is beyond grateful to, at last, have some closure on a father long gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment