My Near Death Experience Arts and Thoughts

It was at seventy-two that I truly began to understand where I came from. What began as a simple curiosity about my ancestry soon became a daily ritual of discovery. Through two DNA sites, I uncovered names, places, and stories that seemed to awaken something ancient within me. Each new ancestor felt like the opening of a door, guiding me further back through time until I reached the Scotland of Mary, Queen of Scots.

What struck me most was how intertwined those early Scottish families were—so many bound by blood, land, and history. There, among them, I found my maternal grandfather’s people, most of them rooted in the Lowlands, with a few venturing into the misted Highlands, and even some with Irish ties. The pattern of kinship stretched far and wide, yet somehow, it all led back to me.

Reading about their lives, I felt more than curiosity; I felt connection. It was as though the voices of the long-departed whispered through the records and archives, reminding me that I am part of something far older and more enduring than I ever realized. Those discoveries changed how I see myself—no longer as a single life moving forward, but as a continuation of countless lives that came before me.