I am an Island!

There isnt too much left to tell about my family and very few people left to tell it, but I will give the readers digest version of what I do know and what I could find out by talking to my dad.   My dad's dad or my grandfather was Antonio Hernandez.  He was from Santa Somewhere Mexico- to many Santa to guess which and no one knows for sure since Antonio left that all behind when he was a teenager and fled to the US in search of a better life.  He got a job with the railroad.  This took him into the state of Kentucky where he met and married my grandmother, Mary.  They moved North with the Railroad and ended up in Rome New York where they raised 8 chidlren until Mary passed away. My grandfather remained a very illegal alien until he passed away in the late 60's.  He aquired some sort of wealth that he carried around in cash everywhere he went.  I guess he could not really invest in anything since he made his money raising, selling and fighting roosters.  He had a home in New York and a home in Plant City Florida that he would travel back and forth on a whim via greyhound bus until he passed.  I remember he would give me dollars for everything I could say in Spanish.  My older sister taught me what I knew.  Boy I wish I had retained that since it is so essential to be bilingual these days.
 My dad joined the Marine corp at a very young age, ended up in North Carolina where he met and married my mother.  My mother was originally from a small town named Blackhawk  or something like that.  I didnt know that until after she passed away in 1997.  Her father had passed away before I was born and her mother passed when I was 3 or 4 years old.  I never got to know my dads family because we live so far away and although I did get to meet, spend time with and love people on my mothers side of the family.  It has been a long time since I have given any of this any thought.  I am the only surviving female in my immediate family.  No one on my mothers side of the family lives beyond the early 50's.  I can not think of one person who lived to see 55 years of age.  Cancer has taken all the females and it didnt bother to skip a generation.  I lost my grandmother, my mother, my sister, my first cousin, and 90% of the remaining females in our family to the same cancers.  We were just a family that didnt have a lot of family events or attachements due to distance, decease and death.   To add to the distance, I am here in Fort Myers Florida with my 8 year old and we are all the family each of us has here.  We are a long way from what  family remains and well, it is hard to say where home is when your heart has been broken so many times over the loss of loved ones. 
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