Charles and Ellen, also known as Ching and Louise, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. The McCrackens were the folks who lived next door in the white cookie cutter house with black shutters and a perfectly manicured lawn on Clearwater Street. They were ordinary folks with an extraordinary sense of responsibility, pride and good old-fashioned values. What they valued most was their family.

The McCrackens didn’t come from means. Born of Scotch-Irish decent in the coal country of western Pennsylvania, they were working class folks with working class dreams. Those dreams were centered around the home and carving out a little piece of the American pie that they could call their own.

For Charles that meant sharing a piece of the pie with five siblings – Clarence “Cracky”, Elsie, Francis “Short”, Jonathan “Mac”, and Laura “Lippy”. As Ching would say, “They were real winners.”

Ellen, born Nellie Louise Bryan, spent much of her childhood in foster homes. Abandoned by their father and given up by a mother who couldn’t afford to feed them, Ellen and her brothers Carl and Melvin, were the only family each other had. These children of the Great Depression knew what it meant to go without everything except love.

The McCrackens put their faith in God and Roosevelt. The Depression would eventually end and America would return to work. But soon the coal mines would go silent once more as the young men of the Greatest Generation would answer the call of duty.

The McCracken home would have four stars embroidered on its service flag, as it was off to war for Ching and his brothers.

The McCracken boys would experience both theaters of war – Europe and the Pacific. But after a great deal of prayer and a little Irish luck, each one would return home and that four-starred banner would get tucked away into memory.

The end of the war would mark the beginning of Ching and Louise. My grandparent’s worlds would become one and the rest would become history. They would eventually move to Ohio where Ching would find work in a steel mill and Louise would take up her career as a homemaker raising four children on a laborer’s salary.

Times continued to be tough, but the McCrackens were tougher. They knew where they had come from, where they wanted to go, and they weren’t afraid to work hard to get there. Work was welcomed, because hard work resulted in dreams coming true. That piece of the pie, remember? They scrimped and saved and eventually were able to tuck enough away to buy that picture-perfect, cookie cutter house on Clearwater Street. A brand new house built just for them! The American dream had come true. And so they went on to raise their kids and grandkids. Ching mowing those perfect lines into his perfect lawn and tending to his perfect little patch of garden. Louise still scrimping and saving and tucking a little away from her grocery money to pay for Christmas and birthday presents. She always had a little something for everyone.

And so goes the story of the McCrackens. A story of hard work and perseverance – a story of answered prayers, Irish luck, and love enough to see through the hard times to the blessings waiting on the other side. Adversity never made them bitter, it only made them better.