We see old buildings, visit museums with ancient artifacts, and read about eventful moments in history, and usually feel the things and events from the past are so removed from our lives today. Then you read something linking us to the past:
“Private Mose Triplett was 19 when the Civil War ended in 1865. Later in life, he married a woman 50 years younger than him and, in 1930, they had a daughter Irene. Irene Triplett is now in her mid-eighties (in 2014) and gets a monthly benefit check from US Department of Veterans Affairs for her father’s service so many years before.”
It’s a link to a time we can’t really imagine. But there it is. A connection to our current time from two centuries ago.