It's Thursday, the day of the Farmers Market in Swansea, Il. This market takes place every Thursday at the Rural King parking lot, during the summer months of April thru October.My grandfather Norm started this event about 4 year ago, with just around 3 vendors. Now the business booming, with approximately 15 vendors participating ,vendors now range from wooden sculptures, to jewelry, and even Shea butter to help eliminate dry skin. Norm was born and raised in Belleville, il where he and his wife Deloris raised four children Mary ,Mike, Tom ,Barb. When Norm was young he attended Belleville west high school, where upon he found his first job working in Sears sales department. Later into his career he found an interest in auctioneering, and created his own family business, called "Geolat auction". After 30 years of being an auctioneer, he retired and began his real passion in agriculture. At his house in Belleville Norm owns around 3 acres of land that he uses to grow peppers,tomatoes,beets,turnip,and even square watermelon. Norm was…
For me I would say that my dad is not supportive to me. My mom and my dad they divorced and then my mom married another person which is the one I live with now. I feel really good with my stepdad, and my mom is happy. My biological dad to me, it just the memories from the past that I hate. I would like to forget about the past memories and it would be easy for me to become a different person. He is the one that I will not ask any help and any supports…
When my step father committed suicide, it was the most shocking yet influential experience of my life. The whole situation expanded my understanding of mortality, spirituality, and of just how fragile happiness is. I can still remember the day that it happened; It was unlike any other day. I was in school when brother picked me up after lunch. We met up with my mother, and brother at my grandmother's house. The entire atmosphere was off. No one was acting like themselves. Immediately I knew something was wrong, even if their expressions and body language were not obvious enough. After sitting in the living room for what seemed like an eternity, I went into the next room where I found my mother who was crying, and when I asked what was wrong…
My parents got divorced in 2008. I was 9. At the time it didn’t bother me, for some reason I was the only one who didn’t cry. I stayed with my mother, and my father would leave San Diego and go back to live in Arkansas where he was born and raised. After he left, I questioned “ What caused my Dad to go back home? What is so good over there?”…
I felt as though I was paralyzed from the waist down. I would try to move my leg or even shift an ankle but I never got a response. This was the first time thoughts of death ever cross my mind.…
I always believed that there is life after death and that you need to live your life to the fullest because once is something taken from you then you will regret not having it. The commencement in 2005 by steve jobs moved many people. He says “ Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make big choices in life.” He had a really hard choice to make, either give up or keep pushing forward, but just like his says “ You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve jobs had big visions and big ideas for this world. He speech spoke to many people and gave many people inspiration because he didn't give up and looked at the cup half full and not half empty.…
I didn’t know heartbreak until June 28, when my dad told me that he had stage 4 cancer. I didn’t know fear until August 13, when I found out that he would have to undergo radiation to combat a tumor in his brain. I didn’t know weariness until August 24, when everyone at school talked about how great their summer had been, and I had to lie and say that mine had been fine. I didn’t know how deep my love for my dad ran until June 29, when I wiped away my tears, stood a little straighter, and vowed to help him find little rays of light in even the worst days.…
Never in my life had I ever thought that at the age of seventeen years old, I would lose my father in an unexpected accident. To this day, I feel it should have never happened. I would like to think it is all a bad nightmare and that I would wake up to see my father there the next morning, but unfortunately it is not the case. There are a lot of things I did not understand back then; especially about loss, sadness, anger, and fear. When it came down to these things I did not know how to handle these emotions so I began to suppress these feelings and pretend to act like I was the same person as I was before, but I was not. It hurt just as much to put on a mask in front of people who I knew and loved without uttering a word of what I felt in my heart. What hurt the most is that I lied to myself.…
There I was, walking along the road that lead to whatever next town it let to. It was a cold, windy sunny day with no cars around and I was also alone, which to me was a perfect day and I was also terrified.…
My dad was extremely involved in my life especially when I was younger. I was a daddy’s girl one hundred percent growing up. My dad got me involved in all the sports I partook in. Encouraging me, giving me lessons, and helping me become better in any way he could. My mom was normally just there for moral support but my dad was the one to push me. He encouraged me to be good at anything I wanted to do. My dad played such a strong role in my life, and helped me become who I am today. The influences he forced on me created many of the interests I still have today. I feel as if I would be a different person if he weren’t there while I was growing up. To see the change that one person could have on you is deranged. She was involved in any sport…
I don’t blame myself for what happened to my parents. I may not be the most buoyant about it, but who would be? Going through your high school years without complete parental support can end horribly in more ways than one. High school is the time when you need your parents the most; you are growing up, maturing, and starting your life. It can be hard to know where to start if you can’t even recognize where your parents have gotten in their lives.…
My Daddy was an insurance salesman and our family moved every few years, always living in the South. Many towns clumped together and our stability became the culture of the South. My aunts and uncles scattered from west Tennessee to Mississippi and our yearly vacations and holidays turned into adventures in their company.…
I was a child, an innocent boy who accepted the fact that Santa was greedy, and was not going to leave one single cookie, not one. Along with that innocent realization, came the understanding that hospital visits were not uncommon, but in fact, a regular occurrence. As a child, the hospital environment seemed so artificial to me. Machines, wires and tubes stationed at every corner, made me think then, that no person should have to succumb to such a synthetic life. Especially if that person was my father.…
The disappearance of my dad changed everything. It all started with a phone call. The message, echoing in my ear like a gunshot, was clear: my dad will move to China without us. At the time my father did not tell me the exact reason for his departure, but I read recently in a magazine that he was escaping from a group of lobbying businessmen, or more specifically, a group of gangsters. He was gone for a year, and, my seemingly perfect life was completely destroyed. At least I thought that was the case just after my dad left us.The group of men who took my dad away from my family was not only after my dad, but they were also after my family. For safety issue, my entire family was forced out from the tranquil life that we used to have. The change in my life was so big that I thought I would never live through this transition.…
My story begins the same way it ended, with ice and darkness. It seems like a lifetime ago when my mother put me up for adoption. It was in the dead of one of the bleakest winters on record in Russia. She left me on in the darkened doorstep surrounded by ice and snow. I’ve been told it was a miracle that I didn’t catch my death from cold. When I was found in the morning, they were sure I had succumbed to the below…