"“My mother grew up with 13 in her family. She had four cousins and they all enlisted in the war after Pearl Harbor. Two of her first cousins were killed in action, and one was found still alive a while later in Burma — they thought he had been dead for a year and a half. My mother’s aunt said she could always feel he was still alive, and one day he came walking through the door. Events like that made that generation so tough. We all try and protect our children from adversity, but some of it is good and you just have to embrace it."