Mystery gift from afar It was an unexpected arrival – and as I strolled back from the mailbox I was full of anticipation at the surprise package from my father. Small, the size of a box full of checks, what on earth could this possibly contain – and why? It was between holidays – right after Thanksgiving and enough “before Christmas” not to be a Christmas gift. I smiled with delight. Packages from home and my parents were always fun. And in this case, somewhat mysterious, given the timing. In the house, I carefully cut through the layers of clear packing tape that encased the box. As I lifted the lid off, there was a note labelled in my father’s unmistakable handwriting: Care Package. Like any kid with a new toy, I laid the note aside (the adult kid did this very carefully) and then I just stared at the contents.    I took another look. Jumbled together in the bottom of the box were not quite a dozen crumpled red and silver foil balls, some with narrow wire sticking from...

digital file from b&w film copy neg. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a09983 Our Lee and Rogers Civil War Heroines Many cultures have stories that honor and idolize both their known and unknown heroes/heroines. This story is about three women on my maternal side who kept my mother’s families alive during General Sherman’s intense military campaign in the USA state of Georgia, during the American Civil War.  These women were my known second great-grandmother and her sister-in-law and an identity-unknown heroine who was part of their lives. Caveat:   If you are sensitive to the subject of slavery and the culture of that time and feel the need to judge the current generation or not tell it the way it was, you may want to skip this article.  I am using a name in this article that has come down through two of my related families and am telling the story as it was told to me. Context is everything and I believe it is a crime to rewrite history. Allied Families Sometime after...