#and all my time reading old letters on the loc website came in handy

[fictionadventurer]

✒️

#so my brother found a box full of documents #from when some semi-distant relative was researching family geneaology #and all my time reading old letters on the loc website came in handy #because it meant i could decipher the handwritten document #of my great-great-grandfather's life story #and read it for everyone as we hung out before family sunday dinner #and the pressure is now on for all the unmarried family members #we've got a legacy to live up to with courtship stories #it seems my great-great-grandfather came to america after a failed engagement #a few years later he met a girl and her parents outside of church #the father hired him to work on his farm #three days later the girl rode with him in a wagon somewhere on some farm business #and she was like 'i've been thinking about you day and night since i first saw you and this is our first chance to speak alone' #and she was like 'we should get married' and he agreed and they shook hands #though they did wait until the next sunday to formalize the engagement #they waited three months to ask for her father's blessing #which they got #they got married two months later #and were married for 35 years #until the morning of the day they were scheduled to take their first out-of-state trip #(he was excited to give her a chance to travel after a life of knowing only home and work) #and he woke up to find her dead beside him #he was writing this not long after and you can tell he was heartbroken #so the marriage was clearly successful #so anyway my one brother was like 'now i feel unsuccessful. i've never found a woman who wanted to marry me after three days' #and my married brother told all us unmarried ones that he expects us to be engaged by next week #clearly it can be done #and anyway it's so interesting to know the details #after only vaguely knowing this guy's name