Hi Mila, Owen and Kayden…Today is Monday July 29th, 2024, and I am starting this blog to create a record for each of you and for Nonie and I’s additional grandchildren that may come down the road (we are expecting an addition in a few weeks). I hope to use this as a sort of a diary for each of you. As I write this, I am a few months from turning 60 years old, on Nov. 1st. Mila is our oldest grandchild, and she will be 9 years old in a few months. Now I hope to live long enough to see what each of you become and meet my great grandchildren, but the odds are I may not. When Mila turns 20 I will 71 and when she turns 30, I will be 81. Now, I hope to live until I’m 100, but the odds are against me. So, I want to start this blog, so that as each of you grow up if I am here or not, you will have the opportunity to get to know me little better, or that’s my hope.
I guess the first thing that each of you should know is that I am deeply in love with each of you and you all make me so very proud. Each of you are a part of a wonderful story, both individually and collectively. In this blog, I hope to share that story with you, in order to create a history for you so that you know where you come from and also so that you realize that you have a responsibility to advance your story for future generations, your kids and your grandkids. Each of you have two sides to your story, your mom’s family and your dad’s family. I will share with you our story, that being your Hunt family and your Reale family (I will need some assistance from your Nonie).
I have always been fascinated by my family history, the Hunt’s and the Sheetz’s. Growing up we called my mom’s parents Mamaw and Papaw, it’s a southern thing and we called my dad’s parents Grandma and Grandpa. My Papaw, Papaw Sheetz, wrote in a diary every day as an adult in order to create a history for all of us. As a kid I would spend hours in his office reading them and today I have those diaries in my possession, and I still love reading them. I asked for them so that someday, when you are interested, they will be there for each of you to read. My Papaw Sheetz died when I was 12 years old, and he was only 56. Papaw was my hero and, in some ways, my best friend, I guess I wanted to be known as Papaw by each of you, in order to honor him. I will introduce you to him and my other grandparents as we move forward, because I think it’s important for you to know them. I also want you to know my parents and your Nonie’s parents, your Great-Grandparents. I will help you to get to know them and I am sure I will reference them a lot in some my posts.
I will close this welcome post and look forward to sharing these stories with each of you. I may not post every day, but regularly for sure. I love you three and I pray for God’s blessings for each of you. I look forward to meeting our newest member to our family in the next few weeks (Sophia or Addison or whatever name Brian and Katie decide to go with).