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<\/p>\nEver stop and think about all that your parents have done for you? I mean really think about it. The sacrifices they make, the things they forgo for you and have you ever calculated just how expensive you are? I don’t have any children, not even any pets, but after a trip to Ellis Island in New York City with my mom, I can appreciate all that it took to get me here.<\/p>\n
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With my mother in town for a few days following a business conference in Portland, Maine, we wanted to show her all great things NY. Brett & I made sure she had some New York pizza, a cannoli (or two), and that she got a chance to see Cohoes Falls and try to win back her vacation expenses at the Saratoga Gaming & Raceway Casino. Down South we love to head over to Tunica, Mississippi and gorge on the Paula Deen buffet…y’all that lady knows how to cook! Of course, we had to haul Phyllis to the city to see the really cool stuff. We packed our new L.L. Bean backpack (just for this type of occasion) and drove to Tarrytown where we caught the train to Grand Central Station.<\/p>\n
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Our first stop was Chinatown. The sights, sounds and smells were almost overwhelming! A friend of ours from Missouri was actually at Kleinfeld’s for the day shopping for wedding dresses with a friend and recommended Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street. It took some searching but once we found it, we were not disappointed. We had some amazing dumplings there! Strangely enough, there was a huge Italian festival going on just a few streets over from Chinatown…talk about sensory overload.<\/p>\n
The adventure continued on to Battery Park where we boarded the Miss Liberty<\/i> on our way to Ellis Island. Most folks are interested in touring the Statue of Liberty and while she’s nice to look at an all, we passed her up on this trip. Our goal was to cross the threshold of Ellis Island…just like my grandfather had 86 years earlier.<\/p>\n
On January 1, 1924, 23-year-old Matthew Schiefer arrived at Ellis Island on the packet ship ORCA <\/i>from Austria. His ticket had been paid for by Dominkus Kocher, family friends who had already come from Austria to America. In exchange for his passage, Matthew agreed to work for the Kocher family for one year. After passing the requirements to enter the United States, Matthew boarded a train to Shirley, Arkansas and then caught a ride with the local mail carrier to the small community of Fox. He was met by Dominkus’ nieces, 14-year-old Anna and 12-year-old Saly. He fulfilled his year-long obligation with the Kocher family and then spent the next three years working and traveling the United States. At the end of 1927, he decided to return to his homeland, but thought he would stop by the Kocher’s home in Arkansas before he made his journey back to Europe.<\/p>\n
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Guess who was all grown up? Saly was now 16 and Matthew’s travel plans changed when the couple married on March 2nd 1928. Turns out March 2nd is sort of a big date in our family. My great-grand parents and my father’s parents were also all married on that date. Weird, isn’t it? My brother and I were baptized on that date as well.<\/p>\n
The couple would have five children, my mother being the baby. The only Schiefer child born in a hospital in 1951, Phyllis was born just four days after Saly’s 40th birthday. Matthew was 51-years-old. Fast forward 27 years later and I came along in January 1978. Matthew passed away from a heart attack later that same year, at age 79, just months after he and Saly had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n
My mother and her siblings had Matthew’s name put on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor several years ago but had never seen it. Our mission in NYC was to find it. By the time we got to it, we felt like we had crossed an ocean to get there. Matthew Schiefer was proudly listed on panel #559 and it meant more to us to see that name than anything else.<\/p>\n
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It was so hard to believe walking through the Ellis Island great hall that my grandfather had been there before. After learning about what the immigrants had to go through to enter the U.S., we found it even more amazing considering he didn’t speak a word of English when he came from Austria. Translators helped him make sure his papers were in order, pass multiple medical evaluations, mental tests and even determined if he was financially sound enough to not become public charge. Had he failed any of these tests, he would have been deported back to Austria and things would not have happened the way they did. Which means you totally would not be reading this right now…wow, feels like a moment in Back to the Future II for a second doesn’t it?!?<\/p>\n
We grow up thinking our parents are the biggest, baddest, bravest people we know. Sometimes that remains true and sometimes we outgrow those ideas. I didn’t know my grandfather Matthew Schiefer but I would like to think his courage lives on. My mom sure has it because she never even flinched when we next hauled her across the city to the middle of a very crowded Times Square…and she swears she caught some kind of rash on her ankle from the subway. I just told her that everybody needs a souvenir to take home with them from NYC.<\/p>\n
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I Heart NY Y’all & my momma!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ever stop and think about all that your parents have done for you? I mean really think about it. The sacrifices they make, the things they forgo for you and have you ever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":11760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-7431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ellis-island"],"yoast_head":"\r\n