Stories About Dad - from Karen

Dear Extended Family, I am going to start numbering my contributions to stories about J SamBiedler -- my DAD! -- so that I can keep track of them.

Peter called me today and asked that I suggest some designs that could beused on the headstone because I am so familiar with family gravesites throughout the Valley and have photographed many of them. I even have abook about PA German folkart gravestones, which of course is where the Biedlers first lived when they came to america in 1732. I just sent off about 8 ideas to Peter.

As I poured through my several bookshelves of PA and Valley German folkart and folklore, memories came rushing back to me of all the things that I so enjoyed sharing with Dad about family history; the crafts and lore of the Valley; and of all things  Appalachia in general. I cannot see a tool or handmade basket or hand carved wood, or hand thrown pottery for that matter, without "feeling" his presence. Dad had such a passion for the folkcrafts and I thank him for exposing me to this aspect of life and for passing that admiration and appreciation on to me.

I have a wonderful photograph of Conner with Dad and of Logan with Dad. You can see them on the new Flickr website that Lori created for the family. We took Sarah, Conner and Ken to visit Dad and Fran in Charlottesville before taking Sarah and family to Switzerland in 1998. Conner had just discovered stairs and when he spied the steep set of stairs in Dad and Fran's place, he took off up the stairs. Ken was right behind him to makes sure he got safely down once again. Then Dad handed Conner a plastic horse they had on hand and I captured a candid picture and Dad and Conner together. Logan visited Dad (his great grandfather) in the Valley the fall of 1997 so we have photos of Logan visiting his great great great grandfather's homeplace and sitting in the small child's chair that my grandfather and my father both used as a baby.  Then in June 1999 Daniel came to visit us in Virginia with both Trevor and Logan. Trevor was only about 10 months old at the time and, unfortunately, I did not get a photo of just he and my father together but only a group photo.

I am so grateful to have a photo of Dad with my three oldest grandchildren.

Love, Karen