A young guy is studying his family history for a school project and finds a map on his great-grandfather’s grave, which leads to an exciting discovery.
“Who are you? Where are you from?” Mr. Barton asked. “I think if we don’t know where we came from, we don’t know where we’re going. And that’s what I want you to know!”.
Dylan Gordon listened to Mr. Barton, then raised his hand. “Do you mean Missouri, France or Guatemala?” “What is it?” he asked, and Mr. Barton shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I want you to know your roots, who your ancestors were, what they did, what their dreams were. Tell me your story, Dylan. That’s what I want!”
After lunch, Dylan cycled up to his grandmother Ruth’s house and knocked on the door. “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise,” Grandma Ruth exclaimed, “Come in!”.
“Hi, Grandma!” said Dylan. “My teacher wants me to talk about where I come from, about my ancestors. That means you, doesn’t it?”.
Grandma Ruth laughed, “Oh, my God! You make me look like a mummy!” – she exclaims. “I think he would like you to go back a little bit. Why don’t we take a walk around the cemetery on Saturday?”
“Our family has been buried there since the Civil War. You can look at all the graves, write down their names and dates, and I’ll tell you their stories, okay?”.
“That would be great,” Dylan exclaimed. “See you on Saturday! ”
Early Saturday morning, Dylan and Grandma Ruth went to the cemetery. She led him to the far corner where all the Gordons were buried.
“This is James Gordon,” Grandma said. “I think he came from Scotland to the United States. The tombstone is so worn out that it is no longer possible to read the dates.”
“Now this one… That’s Andrew Bellamy Gordon. He was my great-great-grandfather!”
“Wow!” shouted Dylan. “Does that mean he was my great-great-great-grandfather? That’s a beautiful tombstone! Was he important?”
“He was an adventurer,” Grandma Ruth said, “he went to sea and became a sailor and then went to California to take part in the gold rush in 1849, and family legend says he got rich.”
“He returned in 1856 and got married. He bought a nice house and settled down. But then the Civil War broke out, and Andrew joined the Union Army.
His wife Hannah was pregnant at the time, and he told her that he had left enough gold to support her. He even left her a map, but Hannah couldn’t find her way along it.
When Andrew died in Virginia in 1862, Hannah brought him home. She asked the blacksmith to cast his map in bronze, and it lies on his grave.”
“Wow!” Dylan repeated. “It’s very cool! So no one has ever found gold?”.
“No,” Grandma Ruth said, “my grandfather tried, my father tried, but no one found Andrew Gordon’s gold.”
Dylan and Grandma Ruth piously cleaned Andrew Gordon’s grave, and he even cleaned the map. Dylan took a closer look at it.
“You said Andrew was a sailor?” Dylan asked.
“Yes,” said Grandma Ruth, “Why are you asking about this?”.
“Because there are numbers on the map here!” Dylan said excitedly. “Sailors use coordinates, right? So maybe that’s what these numbers mean?”
Dylan took out his cell phone and entered the numbers into the GPS. “I think it’s somewhere in the woods, Grandma!” he said. “Come on!”
With Dylan in the lead, the two went into the woods following the GPS. They went deeper and deeper into the forest, and Grandma Ruth began to feel tired and restless.
“Dylan,” she gasped. “I think we should go back!”
“No!” said Dylan. “Look, there’s an old hut!”
The shack was more of a ruin, Ruth noticed, except the brick chimney was still standing.
“That’s where it is!” said her grandson. He began to rummage through the ruins, looking for a clue to the mysterious gold. Ruth was tired, so she sat down on a rock in front of the fireplace.
She leaned back and felt something move. “Don’t move, Grandma Ruth!” Dylan whispered. “I think I know where the gold is!”
Dylan started pushing on the bricks in the fireplace until he felt movement. Carefully he pulled the brick out. At the bottom of the hole left in the chimney was a tin almost the size of a brick.
Dylan tried to lift it, but it was heavy! He had to move it and he and Grandma Ruth carefully lowered it to the floor.
Dylan opened the tin box with a gasp. Inside was a sheet of parchment paper, and under it was a glint of gold! “We found it, Grandma!” Dylan shouted. “We found Andrew’s gold!”
But Grandma Ruth was more interested in the paper. She carefully unfolded it and read the faded inscription:
“My beloved, if you are reading this, it means that I got to heaven before you. The gold in this box will give our baby a bright future and will calm you down. If I don’t come back, don’t let my child forget me. Tell him that the biggest adventure of my life was realizing that I was going to become a father. I go to war knowing that the future of my family is secured.”
Ruth sighed. He signed it: “My love is with you forever, your Andrew.” “You see, Dylan, he left the gold for the future of his family, and that means you and your father.”
“Is it worth a lot?” Dylan asked.
“I don’t know,” Grandma Ruth said, “but whatever it is, I know it will help your mom and dad a lot.”
“What about you, Grandma Ruth?” Dylan asks. “You’re Andrew’s family too!”.
“But it’s you who will perpetuate Andrew’s memory in the future,” says Ruth, “and mine too. We perpetuate the memory in our family, your teacher was right about that!”.
Dylan got an A for reporting his pedigree, and his father discovered that the gold was worth more than $60,000! This was enough to pay off the family debt, and there was still enough left for the holiday!
