I have a section on my webpage entitled Hauntings. Hauntings rattle me until I can figure out a means to address questions about which I don’t understand. There is a strange tension between being haunted and then finally understanding something that I didn’t comprehend. While I am not sure how many others are haunted like I am, however, the hauntings aren’t enjoyed by me, but I wouldn’t delete any of my hauntings. They create a great deal of pain, nevertheless, once that I have addressed the issue that haunted me, the hauntings turn out to be blessings.

Amid a morass of hauntings, by chance, I came across something Rod Stewart said, which ties him more closely to me. “You go through life wondering what it is all about but at the end of the day it's all about family.” As I wrote this article, I listened to Rod Stewart’s Way Back Home, which addressed his childhood memories of his family.

Rod Stewart

It is obvious who makes up his nuclear family. However, his extended family consists of the British in general during WWII.

The Brits stood together as they faced the onslaught of the Nazis during their darkest hour. I’m a couple years older than Rod Stewart. I too lived during the war in the safety of the States. When my father was shipped off to the South Pacific, my mother and I lived with my grandparents. In spite of the war or probably because of it, there was a cohesiveness like that of Rod Stewart and his family.

My drive to explain my hauntings and Rod Stewart’s song, Way Back Home, have morphed together in my mind. I have written about finding a large part of my family in Myanmar six years ago. It all began due to my tour guide needed to pick up some papers at her home for me after I left the Inle Lake area. However, Ti Ti, her nine-year-old daughter was home on winter break. What a fortuitous moment that was for me. Ti Ti and I played Scrabble for nearly an hour. While she beat me, I discovered my granddaughter.

This is Ti Ti four years later when I returned to see my family.

I love my family in the States. However, I can’t explain why Ti Ti meant so much to me. While I was with Moh Moh, I met Ti Ti’s younger sisters and her father. It didn’t take me long before that family was equivalent in my heart to my family in America. Love trumped genetics. That phenomenon changed me…literally. Nearly two years ago, I returned to Taunggyi where they live and will be going back in less than six months during my winter break from teaching. The following photo is my family when I returned two years ago.

The next photo is of my family recently. Ti Ti is missing from this picture, because she is at a college preparatory high school. After she finishes high school, she will attend college. The young gal on the right is one of Ti Ti’s cousins.

As I look back upon my journey down the yellow brick road of my 76-years, there have been four major events that positively changed me. While the changes weren’t changes in direction, there were changes in the degree of drive in a direction that I was already going.

Finally, if Ti Ti’s family is my family, then the kids that my granddaughters attend school with are my extended family. Thus, began the We Are Family in Myanmar fund raising drive to get laptops for the children with whom they attend school. I had wanted to raise a half million dollars for 1250 laptops for the students that attend the two different schools where my granddaughters attend. Nonetheless, I need more time than the eight or nine months that I had hoped. Unless I can get some corporate donations, I will have to continue the drive into the following year.

This brings me to an article that I wrote to Ti Ti. It contained advice to my granddaughter, which included Norm Vaughan’s declaration, “Dream big and dare to fail.” Raising a half million dollars is a monumental task, but I won’t fail my family. It might be delayed, but they are too important to me for me to fail them.

If you wish to contribute or you know of potential corporate charitable organizations, please let me know. You can also suggest that these groups go to my site on GoFundMe. I would encourage you to contribute along with returning to Myanmar with me. You might find a part of your family. It will change your life as it has mine.