LOVE LETTER TO THE GENERATIONS

 March 2025

Dear

❤️ Zoomers (Gen Z),  

❤️ Millenials (Gen Y),

❤️ Gen X,  and

❤️ Gen Alpha…

I hear your anger and frustration and the conclusions you have thus far drawn from what you deem as truth.

If you were my daughter or son or granddaughter or grandson I would invite you over for my homemade oatmeal cookies and sweet tea.  We would eat, drink, talk, really listen to each other with respect,  and pray together.  

I would tell you stories of our family:  their loves and losses, their faith and values, and their work ethic, with the hope that their stories would inspire you to seek the truth and reach for the destiny God created you to fulfill.

Granny Mary Lucille would say she was born in “19 and 5,” a member of the Greatest Generation (1901-1929). She was the single most important person in my life who influenced me more than anyone else. Granny came to Missouri in a covered wagon with her mother and father and 13 siblings when she was 10 years old.  She married three times and gave birth to two daughters and miscarried a son.  She owned and operated a dance hall, restaurants and a home for senior ladies.  She baked at least 20 pies each day at her restaurant.  She loved Jesus.  She made many mistakes and grew in grace and forgiveness.  Granny buried three husbands.  She taught me the love of gardening.  

Granny:  “You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.”  

She hired me to work in her home for senior ladies and she hired me and my 1965 Liberty High School cheerleading squad to work in her restaurant, the Highway Barbeque so we could earn money to go to cheerleading camp at the University of Oklahoma.  We learned how to show up, follow orders, do dishes, take orders, bus tables,  make change and serve customers.  

Granny Lucille:  “A job worth doing is worth doing well.”

It felt so good to work hard and earn money to pay our way to cheerleading camp.  We learned a Pom Pom routine that summer to the Beach Boy’s song, BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL.

My dad, Jewell Edward Bush, was born in 1922,  close to the Greatest Generation (1901-1929) and the Silent Generation (1928-1945).  He was the 9th of 11 children.  His father died in a coal mining accident.  His step-father abused him and kicked him out of the house.  He went to work at seven years old selling hot dogs and soda pop and sweeping floors and earned 50 cents a week.  He was forced to quit school at 12 years old.  His mother gave permission for him to sign up with the Army before he was 18.  He was a member of the 128th Infantry, 32nd Division.  They fought 654 consecutive days of hand to hand combat from October 15, 1940, to the WWII ceasefire on August 5, 1945… more than any division in any war. 

Dad was wise beyond his years in school and loved beyond the example he was shown as a child.   He was bruised and beaten yet he chose to live a life of love and hard work. 

https://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2018/06/happy-fathers-day-2018-wisdom-of.html?m=1

We are each shaped by experiences that lead us to different approaches to work and relationships in life.  Are yours work-centric ideologies  or do you have a person-first mindset or a Jesus-first faith that submits a selfish will to a creator/redeemer God who loves us and has a plan for our lives?

I’m a Baby Boomer (1946-1954), born in 1949.  I’m named Mary Marcia after my grandmother.  The blood of Granny Mary Lucille and Jewell Edward Bush runs through my veins.  I refuse to be a victim when life is challenging.  I work hard.  I’m a fighter, a warrior in the faith, a Jesus-first believer, a life long learner who loves my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and god children fiercely.  

I remind them:  “The world does not revolve around you.  Ask God what he is doing in the world and get in on it.”

God calls me to love you, too, with his love. 

 If you don’t have a legacy of hard working, creative, people of faith, come join the family of faith.  

God promises to adopt you.  Ephesians 1:5

He will give you the faith to believe.  

Ask him.

Show up.

Work hard.

Stop whining.

Discover the reason God created you.

He is The Way.  The Truth and The Life.

❤️ Always Grateful.

❤️ Always Learning,

❤️ Flawed and Fabulous.

Mary Marcia L. Norwood