The future.....

You are a member of the first generation of doctors in the history of medicine to turn their backs on the oath of Hippocrates and kill millions of old useless people, unborn children, born malformed children, for the good of mankind —and to do so without a single murmur from one of you. Not a single letter of protest in the august New England Journal of Medicine. And do you know what you’re going to end up doing? You a graduate of Harvard and a reader of the New York Times and a member of the Ford Foundation’s Program for the Third World? Do you know what is going to happen to you? . . . You’re going to end up killing Jews.

                                            —Walker Percy, The Thanatos Syndrome

To Ponder.....

Settle this in your heart. Life is a gift from God. He owes it to none. He may take it at any age, any time, and do no wrong.
                                                                                                    -John Piper

Remembering a good friend

Life as a family historian can be lonely.

You spend hours and hours over years, with little to show....but when you find something it's big.  You want to tell someone.

My Dad was always interested...and it was great showing what I found and who I found.

But I was to be blessed with a cousin who was just like me.

Alexander-Josef Dreser was born in Russia in 1957.  He was the grandson of Alois and Katharina (Dieser) Heinrich.Which means his grandmother and my grandmother were sisters.

Through the years we established a great friendship...sharing old records...stories...contacts.

Both of us were able to compile and sort through some major archival records and put together a book on the history of our families village, Josefstal.

Alex was able to travel to Canada to visit and in 2007, Marina and I were able to visit him, his wife Lora and son Eduard.

Alex died on July 7, 2015 at the age of 57.

He was a good and kind friend....and I shall miss him in many ways.  Mostly having someone to share my historical passion in documenting the life and people of our little village on the Volga.

I will really miss him.