Strong and Brave

Sometimes I whine.  

The laundry, cooking, cleaning, tidying, laundry....more laundry, more cooking....

I think some of you can relate :)

Then I was working on The Urban Scrapbook September staff challenge and decided to use a beautiful heritage photograph of my husband's German grandmother.

Emma Klapstein

This woman lived through the entire WWII as a mother of young children, living on a farm.

Her husband died at a young age, her 2  daughters died as children, and she was left to manage EVERYTHING with 4 young boys, two of whom were taken from her to fight in the war.

One returned home...the other was killed just before WWII ended, in a tank on the front. 

Elmar Klapstein(my husband is named after him)

Elmar in centre, on the Russian front

She managed to immigrate to Canada with her remaining 3 sons, but after arriving, and living with friends and relatives, her eldest of the 3 (Ewald) died from cancer.  

L to R: Gus, Ewald, Wilhelm(my father-in-law)

Her  youngest two boys were left, Gus and Wilhelm (Bill), my husband's dad. They were employed in trades: my father-in-law in carpentry and his brother a welder.  They built a house here in my city, where their mother resided until her death at 92.  

Wow.  

And there are times when I feel inconvenienced if my trimmer blade is dull!

Yep, time to stop complaining and pay tribute to this amazing woman whose strength and bravery is astonishing.

Thankfully, I was able to get to know her while my husband and I were dating and then married.  I even spent time with her to help label most of the photos in her albums before she passed away 17 years ago.  I now treasure these photos and albums, stored in my studio.

For me, this is the essence of what scrapbooking is about...preserving memories of our heritage to help us understand and appreciate how and why we are living today.

Here is what I created with the September kit from Urban, which has some yummy FabScraps and Glitz Designs papers....

The cream "doily" is cut from Bazzill card stock with my Cricut (Paper Lace cartridge)

A little lacing with this glittery copper twine

This vellum oval frame and the bling sticker are from Glitz Designs.

I painted the chipboard title with black gesso and added gold metallic paint (Adirondack) around the edges. 

FabScraps dress form and roses wreath sticker

Beautiful flowers and leaf from I am Roses

Click HERE to visit the Urban blog to see the other designers' wonderful layouts using this kit.

We miss you, Oma, and are so grateful for everything you did to make a better life for your family here in Canada.