52 Ancestors - Week 23 - Health

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 23 – Health

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

We attended my husband Denny Fitterling's 50th high school reunion this weekend in Warrensburg, Missouri. 50 or so of the original 132 graduates attended. I was so amazed at the good overall health of the group. They had only lost 15 classmates in fifty years.

The older I get the more I focus on ways to improve my health--physical, spiritual, intellectual, and mental. Probably the mental health aspect is just as important as anything.

I know my own father who lived until 96 despite smoking for 40 years of his life and eating way too much bologna always had an "optimistic" attitude and embraced each day with the attitude of finding the good in something. He wasn't much of a grouser and rarely talked about his aches and pains or ailments.

I watched in awe this week as American Airlines flew 70 surviving World War II veterans back to Normandy for the 80th Anniversary. 80th Normandy Anniversary

They were all in the 90's and many over 100. What has allowed them this longevity. Part of it could be the knowledge that at one time they survived unbearable odds and have lived with gratitude. They know and appreciate the great gift of health care and healthy living options here in the U.S. 

As a Veteran who has travelled the world and seen abject poverty and repression I never take for granted the chance to live my healthy lifestyle here in America.

52 Ancestors - Week 4 - Witness to History

52 Ancestors - Week 4 - Witness to History

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

Thinking back on the stories of my father's family, living in Western Pennsylvania, some since before the Revolutionary War, there are a lot of times they were a witness to history in the making. It is hard for me to imagine my Revolutionary War Patriot, Barnett Cunningham facing the situation so soon after emigrating from Ireland to start a new life in Penn's Woods.

When Barnett and his half-brother James Torrance brought their families from Cumberland County to settle and start farming in Fayette County, they built a small church near where they lived. Tyrone United Presbyterian Church is still used and is the oldest church in the area. They both served as elders for more than 30 years.

Barnett was born in 1736 in Ulster, Ireland and was 24 when he married Anna Wilson probably in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. When the Revolution began, he joined his fellow Irishmen and enlisted. He served as a Private in Major John Murray's Company, 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment.

After the war, he returned to farming. He acquired a lot more land in the area, and some of my distant relatives still reside on these properties.

Many of his descendants have gone on to serve as well, in various wars to follow. Those include my father Clyde Keefer, who served in the Army Air Corps/Air Force during World War II in Japan; my older brother David Keefer, who served with General Petraeus during the first Gulf War; and me, who was called to active duty soon after 9/11 to serve in Kuwait with the 3d Personnel Command, Third Army.