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Dear Families,

I hope you've enjoyed these stories.
There have been times finding them, when I've come across something wonderful that's made me feel like a kid learning something new.

I'm sorry I never asked my Dad much about the Hummer stories until it was too late. When I was young, the history of the family didn't seem that important. I suppose it's part of being young.

As I get older, I know exactly what I would want to ask my Dad. And exactly where I would ask him to take me on his day off. (To the Harbor, to show me around. )

I suppose that through this effort to reconnect with the family, I can still learn about my Dad. I feel instantly comfortable with cousins I never met. It's funny, I also feel close to the grandparents I never met. They're on my mind so much (and no, they are not talking back yet !) but I do want to know them very much. I want to know more about Hilma and Edward and the Ollilas and what they felt about things.

More often than not, people leave very little of what they felt when their life is over. Unless they kept diaries or wrote letters that were kept by others, the only real knowledge we'll have of them is through the memories of people who loved them. They are left to tell the stories to the ones they love, and on.

More and more these days, I've been thinking about our family legacies. I feel that it's up to us to tell our stories now. We should tell and write down for our kids before it's too late, how we feel, what we believe, so they'll know who we are, when they're old enough to want to.

I've tried to gather all my letters and keepsakes, and the stories I've been told by Aunt Lil and Uncle Dave. Lil's memories are the core of these stories. For 17 years she had no Hummer family left and I know it was hard for her to be the last one, especially this year, without Dave. We will miss them both the rest of our lives.