THIS   MAMA'S   FAMILY

Ken D. Hensel     January 11, 1948 - March 25, 1996
Agnes Calow Haase     April 7, 1904 - November 16, 1983
Adele Haase Sorensen     March 13, 1893 - October 14, 1975
          

Now that every single member of my root family has passed on into the next life, it seems fitting for me to honor and remember them, not only for their sake and mine, but also for the generations coming along behind us.
          In preparing this, I determined that I would neither eulogize nor castigate these ancestors of mine.  I vowed, instead, to  present them to you as  mere mortals, (as you and I are,) with some endearing, and some not-so-endearing characteristics. Above all, I wish to give them the authenticity of real human beings, who were just trying to do the best they knew how, at that particular time, using whatever resources  they  had to work with.  You will not find any "plaster saints" here, but you will find no villains either. Perhaps you will be able to "relate" to them.
          They are the same people I knew at two-years old, at ten, at  twenty, at forty, and at 60.  At each era of my life, my understanding of them changed. They were really no different, but my own perspective evolved throughout my lifetime.
          Now that they are in that next life, I  see them in my mind's eye as they were always meant to be but could never quite become; and I am able to love them all freely.  It's as if I have found  my family at last. It might not have been a perfect family, but it was mine; and  the only one I will ever have had.
         To me, the worst thing about death  would be not being remembered. So here are my memoirs. I hope someone will do the same for me someday.