This photo was in an old suitcase in my parents house. Both of my parents and many of their family members are gone. As I cleared out my parents’ home, I was able to save this striking photograph.
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This picture was taken around 1920 in Scotland. My great grandfather Murdoch MacMillan is pictured cutting hay. My grandmother Mary and her sisters are helping gather it as their father continues cutting.
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They lived on a small farm known as a croft, on the Island of Benbecula, a remote island off the west coast of Scotland, in the outer Hebrides.
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My great grandparents lived on the island until they died in the 1930s. My great aunt Harriet, pictured here with my grandmother and their other sister, left the island to train to be a school teacher. She later returned to an island community, the Isle of Skye, to be the teacher in the school house in Ardvassar. Harriet became my father’s guardian after his mother (my grandma Mary) died when he was just 13 years-old. Harriet came to live with my family on the mainland, near Glasgow, when she was 87 years old. She lived with us for 2 years until she died; I’m so thankful for those years.
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I am very grateful for my ancestors and their strength. Whenever I complain about modern-day hardships, I look at this photo and it puts everything into perspective. We are so lucky.
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~shared by @dazzling_dahlias