Ford Pickup Truck

Relationship: Im/migrant
Truck resembles my grandmother's journey
Truck resembles my grandmother's journey

The story I will tell is not one of immigration, but one of migration. My grandmother, Rhoda Mary Cranmer lived in New-York for most of her life. She lived in Rochester, New York her maiden last name was Cranmer until she was married to the father of my aunt and uncle. She chose not to further her education after high school to be a stay at home mother to both my aunt and uncle. This all changed when her husband began treating my grandmother poorly. My grandmother decided that she had enough and took my aunt and uncle and headed to California in her Ford pickup. 

California is where she met my grandfather and got married again. She then had two more children with him, one of which being my mother. To be able to help her husband support their children she decided to go California State University, Los Angeles where she got her Bachelors degree in education. She then became a teacher and taught elementary school until she retired to raise me.
I was taken from my mother because she was seen to be an "unfit parent" and I was to be placed into a foster home. When my grandmother found out about this she took me in as her own and always treated me as a son. She remains the strongest and wisest woman I have ever known. She is the reason I stayed in college and am graduating this semester. I have attached a picture of a Ford pickup truck because it symbolizes her migration from New York to California. 

Year: 1955

– George Czarnick

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant