Recap and Reflections on My Life: The Prequel (in Snapshots)— Including all 26 posts in the April 2024 Blogging from #AtoZChallenge. Thanks for joining me on the journey and commenting along the way!
Now that the April 2024 Blogging from #AtoZChallenge is over, I am happy to be among the winners who completed the online marathon — for the sixth time! Yet this year, I am also sorry that the challenge has ended. Here’s why:
Reflections
Over the past month, I got to spend quality time with my late parents Norm and Peg (Laurence) Charboneau — getting to know them better, discovering what mementos they cherished from youth, finding answers to questions that I never asked them, and learning how they grew into the parents I loved even without knowing their back story.
After they retired, Mom and Dad joined me on our genealogy journey — interviewing relatives, trekking through cemeteries, collecting family documents and artifacts, and telling me their own stories during oral history interviews. Family was that important to them.
Spending an entire month writing daily about my parents was like having them back beside me — and I am grateful that the A-to-Z Challenge gave me the opportunity.
Series Recap
Below, in alpha order, are links to this year’s #AtoZChallenge2024 posts about My Life: The Prequel (in Snapshots) — adding my parents’ story to the family history mix. Please check out any posts you may have missed. Comments are still open on the later posts. I love hearing from readers!
- Theme Reveal: My Life: The Prequel (in Snapshots)
- About my parents
- Beer on tap: My dad’s bartending gig
- Charboneau childhood: My dad’s early years
- Dance card: The dating game
- Engineering at Clarkson: Dad in college
- First date: Fixed up in college
- Greetings from Cape Cod: Patching up a fight
- Hollywood Ave. in Gloversville, NY: Mom’s childhood home
- In love with music: My mom’s vocation
- Just for fun: Potsdam Ice Carnival
- Kinship: My parents’ extended families
- Laurence childhood: My mom’s early years
- Married: My parents’ 1948 wedding in Gloversville, NY
- Norm’s Navy days: My dad during WWII
- Otter Lake, NY: Dad’s introduction to nature
- Potsdam sorority: Mom joins the Agonians
- Question is popped: Mom and Dad get engaged
- Recreation at Caroga Lake and Rebounds on the basketball court
- Ski trip: Mom meets the in-laws
- Tenth Blogiversary! A decade of discoveries
- University graduates: My parents finish college
- Valedictorian and Graduation Pianist: My parents in high school
- Washington, DC, honeymoon in 1948
- X-celsior bound: My parents move back to New York State
- Yes! I join the family
- Zipping off to Altamont, NY: My parents settle into family life
Gratitude
Many thanks to the team for keeping the A-to-Z Challenge going — and to everyone who visited, subscribed, followed, and commented on Molly’s Canopy. You made my sixth #AtoZChallenge so rewarding. And now that you’ve met my family, please follow, subscribe and join me throughout the year as my genealogy journey continues!
Up next: After a break, regular blogging resumes at Molly’s Canopy. Please stop back!
© 2024 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.