Frightening is a rather apt prompt for the week considering it is Halloween (although Halloween itself has passed by the time I write this post) - a day much more prominent in America than it is here in Australia, although it is now growing in popularity.
When I think of the frightening things my ancestors would have endured, there are so many things to think about. The enormous changes in society they would have witnessed, from the industrial revolution to the digital age. The two World Wars, along with many other conflicts. Social upheavals. Natural disasters. Illness, unemployment, the threat of the workhouse. Accidents, with the resultant possible loss of income, with little or no social welfare to fall back on. Life is indeed frightening.
Most of all, I think about those of my ancestors who emigrated from England, Ireland and Germany to Australia. How frightening it must have been to make the decision to move halfway around the world. To step on board the ship knowing there was little chance they would ever see the family and friends they were leaving behind again. To face life in an unfamiliar country, an alien landscape. To establish themselves in that unfamiliar place and build lives for their children and grandchildren. While for many it was a way to escape poverty, hardship and persecution, a potential to built lives for themselves better than they could ever have hoped for in their country of birth, it must still have been a frightening leap into the unknown.
Exactly how my ancestors faced those fears I will never know in great detail, but face them they did. The lives they built in Australia were, for the majority, well worth the risk. And I can only thank them for having the courage to face their fears and build those new lives.
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