I come from a long line of Survivors going back to 1725 in Philadelphia

What is the motto of a survivor? "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best".

It's the pioneer spirit that colonized this country from about 1620 forward to now.

It wasn't always nice but the people that survived here in the U.S. all had this spirit (or someone taking care of them did) or they didn't survive.

My wife is an optimist.

However, I find that most survivors like myself are not necessarily optimists because they live: "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best" all the time.

But, I noticed when I met my present wife when I was 45 years old that her optimism had a very healing effect on me. She was always a planner and had 3 college degrees including a master's degree whereas I'm very good in difficult situations. I don't usually lose my cool.

I can remember one time we were having our bathroom redone and we had to use a portable toilet we rented in our back yard. She came in and was crying because a possum was growling at her under the porta-potty and I just got angry and was actually growling going out that back door. The possum heard me coming growling and had jumped to the top of the fence and into the alley before I got there. I escorted my wife out to the portable John and everything was okay from then on.

In order to survive different situations you have to have some attitude and my family always taught me to have attitude in difficult situations when necessary.

I was always grateful to be the first generation (along with my cousin) not to have to shoot at somebody during my lifetime.

By God's Grace