Story Written By: Ann Shafer
Freya, A big topic, my family. But so is every
family. What I have come to see is that we
are blessed to have a lot of information
about the family, information that if others
had about their own family would give them
the opportunity to tell fantastic stories too.
But we have the info and it comes with a
kind of sacred trust and duty to relate it to
future generations, or that is the way I see it.
I see it as a particular story and yet in a way,
every person’s story.
Introduction Written By: Freya Pruitt
There are moments in life that come to us
like a quiet wind. They may go un-noticedif we are not paying attention. I have been
editor in chief of this magazine for quite
some time, and have become accustomed
to paying attention. I call myself “The
Investigator of the Heart.” People of the
heart usually can easily identify each
other: That was the case when I met Ann
Shafer.
I am proud to introduce a woman
of substance, passion, talent, and
intelligence. She has a family history that
needs to be told.. More than any other
time in history, we all need to be reminded
of our family heritage. We need to call
on memories that are embedded in every
cell of our bodies-memories that have
laid dormant in an attempt to reach a new
plateau of newness. Little did we know,
the present lives in the past, and the future
lives in the present. I proudly present a
great woman of character: Ann Shafer; A
True Texas Treasure
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emigrated here from Hungary and
we have only just learned in the last
couple of years that he was Jewish!
Now I wonder about the family he left
behind, my cousins, if distant, and what
happened to them during the Holocaust.
My father’s mother was an amazing
woman, married five times, only one
child – she would have preferred to be
an opera singer but ended up tending
a ranch in Mexico and did everything
she could to keep it from my mother
after my dad died. Her mother was a
member of the DAR because she was
descended from Joseph Winston whom
Winston-Salem North Carolina is named
after – he led and won the Battle of
Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary
War. Another of her ancestors was a
steamboat captain on the Missouri River
and a building in Kansas City is named
after him (if it still stands).
My own mother, born into an affluent
American family in Tampico, Mexico, was
tested and tested from early on and she
rose to every challenge, living an exemplary
if eccentric life. When the three of her
children were young, she took us on trips,
long hot trips in an old Plymouth in the 50s.
We went to visit our cousins in Tampico,
Mexico every spring vacation until she tired
of that. Then one summer she took us east
Going back a little further many
and the next west. We stayed with family
and friends. Every mile she drove alone,
that is she was the sole driver with three
whiny kids in the car with her. After that, she
took us to Europe. We stayed in pensions,
we went in the off season because it cost
less, we crossed the ocean by freighter one
time. We took three of these incredible trips,
two months or longer each time. Mother
disliked horses but my sister loved them so
she agreed to help Mrs. Oldsmith teach and
rode along. Mother chose to quit driving,
chose to live in a tiny house and whittle
down her belongings, found Fredericksburg
as a town to grow old in and sold it – her
brother, her best friend, and at least two
cousins moved here because she loved the
town so.
My father flew 55 missions over the
European theater in WWII including the
D-Day invasion. His grandfather was the
best known p