Somewhere over the Rainbow

Dedication: My grandfather, Fredrick Micheal Fox.

I chose Somewhere over the Rainbow as my title because that was my grandfather’s favorite song and this is a dedication to him. I will start by saying my family is my number one priority over anything. I am the first of 17 grandchildren, and counting, and that gives me the pleasure of watching each and everyone of my cousins grow to be the kind people they are today and will continue to be as they grow older. My grandmother and my grandfather had 6 kids together, 3 boys and 3 girls. My grandfather was an amazing husband, father, and veteran who served in the Navy. My grandmother was a stay at home mom for most of her kids childhood caring for them, helping with school, and creating them into the wonderful adults and parents they are. She also battled breast cancer not once, but twice. That was just an obstacle to overcome in her story. Around 4 years ago my grandfather died very suddenly and sent my family into immediate shock and sadness. I was 11 at the time so I understood what was going on, but my younger siblings and cousins did not. I remember at his funeral, walking down the isle of the church with my two younger siblings and 6 younger cousins, just having tears streaming down my face and looking over at my mom and her two sisters looking at us with so much hope and love. A fews months after his passing we got the best news we possibly could get in a time like this, we found out that my mother’s sister, my Aunt Chrissy, was having child #4! Little did we know child #4 were actually children #4, #5, and, #6! This news brought so much happiness to my family. But the news did not stop, my mother’s sister in law Katie, was also having baby #3, and so was my mother’s other sister in law, Sarah, who was having baby #3! The news overwhelmed us with such joy and optimism. We truly believed that when my grandfather died, God sent us 5 babies to remember him and bless us with his greatest gift of all, life. These 5 beautiful children are known as the Fredrick Five after my grandfather. I could never imagine life without the most generous, kind, and genuine people I know that are my family. We get loud together, we laugh together, and we worship God together. I believe so strongly that everything happens for a reason and that is why my life contains the people I care so deeply for. The memories will stop being made at some point, but they will never stop being remembered. That’s why I chose to put family first and I recommend to everyone that if you do not have the relationship you want with your family, make it the relationship you want by giving everything in you to love and care for them. I chose to put family first, did you?