Poverty to Prosperity

The reason I share this article from the BBC News is because I find the details of the written account of the family's poverty riveting (and heart-wrenching), but also because it is so ironic that the actor whose family is portrayed in that writing earned his fame portraying a down-and-out unemployed worker in the very same area of England. Three generations - from abject poverty to Hollywood fame. It's glorious. As much as it pains us to read the family's woes, it is equally exhilarating to see how quickly - in the relative scheme of things - they rose from those woes and created better lives.

The other reason that this particular article really peaked my interest is that in so many ways it is very much like my own family's history. While I am not a Hollywood star (LOL), my life situation would be completely amazing to my own (maternal) great grandmother, who, by the time she was my age, was dead. She worked scrubbing floors and doing others' laundry, she was a young widow raising 6 - or was it 8 - ? children, she was gone far too early. But looking at the life cycles that she put into motion, she would be proud and very satisfied that her efforts were certainly not in vain. That is why stories such as this are so blissful.