Letter to My Great Grandchildren

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

March 24, 2025 (To Be Read March 24, 2110)

Dear Great Grandchildren,

How many times have you been to the Moon? How many days have you strolled on Mars? You all come of righteous pioneer stock. Let’s see, there was Peter Montague born in England who crossed the fearsome ocean in 1621 and became the first colonial school teacher in Virginia. There was Col. William Brown of England who sailed away over the great blue passageway and founded a family in Virginia. There was George Twyman I, an indentured servant, who set foot on the sandy beach at Jamaica, Middlesex County, Virginia in the year 1677. And there was a Col. Richard Lee I, a poor native of England who landed in the New World colony of Virginia and died the wealthiest person in the colony. There are others whose names I do not recall right now like the French Huguenots who fled France for England and then Virginia. And the Africans, involuntary transplants across the same ocean.

I myself was born in Virginia, the home of my ancestors for nine generations, before leaving for a new ocean and a new home in San Diego, California. The spirit of the pioneer is in your bloodline.

Did you know that my Great Grandfather, Robert Daniel Brown, held my Dad? One of the last acts of my Great Grandfather was to lay hands on the newborn future. Could it be that I held in my hand your Dad? Your Mom? I will never know but, oh, how I want to know.

I imagine you have seen holograms of me, your Great Grandmother, and your grandparents. You are doubly blessed in that you know my voice, my presence, my eyes, my smile. I penned a book, articles, and over 700 essays before I passed away. My life is an open book, to use an old cliche in my time. I suspect novels and books are a relic of times gone by for you like the horse harness was in my time.

I have a black and white picture of my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother which I saved from my Grandma’s mantle in the 1980s. Grandma shared a few stories about her father, that he was a stern father and a farmer and a minister, a man of the cloth. He lived in a two-story white house down Twyman Road and across the railroad tracks on Platinum Road. I was close to my ancestor. I took my first steps within eyesight of his home. I worshipped within steps of his picture on the wall at our family church. But I never heard his voice, read his words. You all are blessed and fortunate.

Great Grandparents Robert Daniel and Amy Wilson Brown & Family

I am so glad you live in the better time I could only imagine. In my time, people obsessed over trivial things like skin color and race. Random strangers presumed they knew an individual of African descent. African descent was all one needed to know. What folly! As a young kid, I remember the night astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon. I went outside and looked up into the night sky at the Moon and strained to see the Lunar Module Eagle. Tell me what it felt like to step foot on the Moon for the first time. Was it all you had hoped it would be?

Did you say something corny like That’s One Small Step for Me. One Giant Leap for My Family!

I wonder what you look like. I bet you favor the world, that your human genome reflects most of the world’s human populations. It occurred to me that I am a creature of the late 1960s and Virginia. If you are reading this at the library on the Mars colony, everybody probably looks the same more or less. Do you recognize remnants of your close and distant family in my face, your Great Grandmother’s face?

What does it feel like to live free of medieval diseases like cancer, heart disease, and dementia? Do you cherish a long life span? Maybe, you were born expecting to live forever, so turning 100 is not a big deal any more. Many of your blood family ancestors fell in the battle of life to these horrible ailments.

Are you curious about the universe? Do you want to better understand the world beyond the planet Earth? Does the trait of eternal curiosity live on in you? If only I could live again and know you in the flesh and ask you these questions at your favorite restaurant in Outer Space. Your Grandmother (or Great Aunt) would always dismiss any desire to visit a hotel on the Moon. “Why would I ever want to do that? There’s nothing up there,” she would say. I knew her as a baby and toddler. You have only known her as the elderly woman of a time gone by.

I hope we left you with a strong foundation for living life. My Great Grandfather was always remembered as an epic ancestor who commanded respect at home and at church. Your Great Grandmother’s fondest hope is for you to live a life worthy of your Great Grandparents and your unborn Great Grandchildren. We are all batons in the race of life. Thus far, our family has run our race well and I expect no less from your generation.

Oh, and one more thing —- there may be a Dyson’s Sphere the size of the Solar System 13 billion light years away. Keep your distance from those aliens/smile.

Your Grandfather (or Great Uncle)