Coming to America

I was watching a Ken Burns documentary tonight on the subject of Prohibition. Of course, any documentary of this kind includes a myriad of old photographs and archival film segments.

As I view one late 19th century film segment, a few frames of celluloid footage plays which depicts an exuberant young lady, dressed in black; standing on an upper deck. And she is apparently waving to someone just beyond camera range; as her ship drifts close by the Statue of Liberty. An immigrant lass; able, eager, ready to begin a new and promising life in a veritable Canaan; ‘til now, the stuff of bedside stories.

I cannot but watch a piece of film such as this without wondering.
What was her name? From whence country did she hail? Why was she here? Where was she going? Whom did she marry? Did she produce children, and, subsequently, descendants? What did life ultimately offer her? Did she die happy, or did sadness and regret accompany her final days on the earth?

For we can be sure that Mary, (or Hilda, or Susanna, as the case may be) “bid us adieu” half a century hence, and whatever circumstances she would experience, whomever she would know, whatever pleasures she would realize have been experienced, known and realized, and no “redo’s” will be forthcoming.

I can only hope that this precious young lady experienced everything to which she was destined, achieved all that Providence planned, and impacted everyone whom God set in her pathway to impact.

She walks in and out of my consciousness, and fills my thoughts tonight.


  By William McDonald, PhD. From (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 35. Copyright pending

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