Page 47 - Life Legacy Project

The Life and Legacy of Janet Hendricks, Age 73
I decided to interview my grandmother for this project because her and my grandfather were the first people to come to my mind when I first heard about this project. My grandmother's name is Janet Hendricks and she currently lives in Mt. Vernon and is retired.
Janet was born in the quiet town of White Salmon, Washington in the Spring of 1944. Her life was always fun with her three sisters and her brother, there was almost never a slow moment. With over forty acres of woods to play in, how could you not have fun? Even amidst all of the fun times, she knew that when she grew up, she would like to live on a farm and have a big happy family.
When she was older she tried many different things. She was a clerk, a telephone operator and a preschool teacher, at one point she also considered being a missionary for the church. She enjoyed working with the pre-schoolers, so she decided that whatever she did next, she wanted it to interact with children in some way. Later on in life, she moved to Mt. Vernon, and raised two healthy children. They too eventually grew up and moved out.
Than, in 2006, disaster struck the family. My grandfather was critically ill, and had to go to the hospital. We were lucky that he survived and after no more than a year he was back to his full health.
Now that she is retired she says that life is much less exciting, even if she does have new freedoms that she never had before, that mainly being availability. Currently her strongest desire is to see all six of her grandchildren grow up healthy and strong in the Lord, and for her to be involved in their lives. Some of the more common sights and sounds now are the radio, the TV, an occasional meow from their cat Tux (Tuxedo), my grandfather and her weekly bible classes. Some of the more common things she sees in the world now are “love and heartache. Mt. Vernon has been through quite a lot of heartache recently.”
She says that the best piece of advice that she had ever heard was actually a song sung to her by her mother when she was little. The advice was to “let the sun shine in, face it with a grin.” Which is basically saying that you should always look for the good side to all things, even one's that don’t seem like they have a good side. Her favorite quote comes from the bible and reads, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” When asked what things are most important in life to her, she said, “Keeping God first, my husband second and my family third.” The piece of advice she would give our generation, is to “put God first in your life, let him be number one. One of the only things she wishes she had known when she was younger was that she had appreciated her parents more.
Overall I learned more about my grandmother than I had ever known before. This whole interview made me want to learn more about the people around me, because no matter how hard it may be to understand, everyone around you, every one of them, have their own story. Everyone has a story and no one should not be able to share that story.
Created by: Zackary O. Hendricks
47