Loooooong story about Norman Rockwell’s familly tree

Hello everyone. You could already guess what this story is about, but I think you don’t really realise how long it is. IT IS LONG. Trust me. If you don’t have too much free time, you should probably do something more useful, or just scroll down and live a clap. I was trying my best. Hope, you will like it ;)

Story of Norman Rockwell’s family begins with the most famous pirate there ever been Captain Jack Rockwell. Endless amounts of legends about him and his adventures keep coming up every day. But today you will read the most breathtaking story about that rum lover. What’s so special about it? Well, firstly, it is not a legend but the real truth and secondly, this is the story that had changed pirate’s whole life upside down.

Captain Jack Rockwell was casually drifting waves with his faithful crew, when suddenly they saw a small island with one palm tree through telescopes. It appeared from nowhere, and curious captain ordered to set course for the island. Not long after they started to get closer, Jack noticed a woman sitting under the palm tree. When they reached the coast, Jack got off the ship and started to introduce himself. “Greetings my dear. Sunbathing?” But there was no reply. Then Jack noticed a coconut laying near her, raised up his head, took a look at the tree, and started to nod with his famous smile. “Ohh, having a lunch, I see”, he said, and tried to wake up woman. Surprisingly it didn’t take long and after Jack shook her shoulder, she stood up quickly and slapped his face. Shocked with such gratitude, Jack asked her name and what was she doing on this lone island in the center of a sea. “Angelica”, she replied, “And who are you? Where am I?”. Pirates started to laugh and after Angelica took a look around, she remembered what happened. “Aaaah, the Birthday! They left me here! IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!”. “Who?”, asked Jack. “Nevermind”, she replied. “Aaaaand what’s the story with the coconut?”, Jack asked. “I was trying to get it off, and fell from a tree, it probably fell after me and hit me in the head”. All started to laugh again except Jack. “Well, we have some food on the ship, so may be you want to-“ “Sure, sure, yeah”, Angelica replied moving Jack aside and going up to the ship. And that’s how they met. Angelica decided to stay on the ship, when they reached seaport. After that they spent a lot of time together, had numerous adventures and happenings. However, in the end they left criminal past, created a family, and Angelica gave a birth to a boy, whom they called Martin. Jack became a true family man.

Martin partly took after his parents, especially in appearance after his father. He also was a captain but he was not a pirate. Despite the fact that his dad was pirate, Martin managed to become a captain of team of prospectors who were looking for a rich and easy life. They were buying all treasure map they could find. Most of the time sellers fooled Martin, but one time team got very lucky. They bought a map from strange old man in the narrow alley. May be he used to be a pirate… Anyway, it probably was the cheapest map they ever got. Team went to the place following map instructions, and at last found themselves on the coast of some. There were only a couple of steps left before they reach their destination marked as X on the map. But Martin and team noticed some pandemonium exactly at their endpoint. There women arguing and discussing something. “Excuse us ladies, could you please step aside. There is some urgent business we have here. Gentlemen, shovels”, said Martin. He was about to start digging when suddenly woman slowly came out of crowd with an indignant and curious look. She had a red hair, she was a bit plumpy but at the same time seemed serious and powerfull. “This is our “urgent business”, get-“ and she saw Martin and couldn’t finish the sentence. While Martin himself straighten up and froze with a shovel in the hand just like Mary. “Uhh, Captain? You alright?”, someone from the Martin’s team asked. “Mary, are you ok? What’s going on?” someone behind Mary asked. They were looking each other in the eyes, and Mary asked gently, quietly, as smooth as possible “What are you doing here?” “We are digging for treasure”, replied Martin in the same way Mary did. “What a coincidence, so are we”, replied Mary. “What if split it 50/50?”, asked Martin. “Great idea”, replied Mary. They were digging for about 15 minutes, and all this time Mary and Martin couldn’t take their eyes off each other. They split the loot and went opposite directions. Both teams went to the pubs to have a drink, relax and enjoy their fortune. Everyone were having fun except Martin and Mary. They both came out of the pubs, and went straight to the beach. Endlessly walking along the coast, they finally saw each other. They decided to run away on Martin’s ship. And after that no one who knew them at that point never seen then again. They started a new life. Martin found a job in the seaport, and Mary became a home maker taking care of their daughter Elisabeth. And that’s where our next part begins.

Elisabeth was nothing like her parents. She had grown in secured family. She didn’t have to find any treasures like her parents did, or rob ships like her grandparents. She loved kids. From young age she wanted to become a teacher, but she began as a babysitter. That’s when she met her future husband Will. Elisabeth didn’t have much experience in working at home with family, she used to work with a lot of kids though in Will’s house there were enough of them. Enough to confuse Beth. There were three children Anna, Sophie, Giselle. They were triplets. And that’s what created a mess. You see, each child had their own tastes. One loved to eat something the other one hated. So, Anna liked milk, Sophie liked orange juice, and Giselle liked regular water. It was the first day at work for Beth, she hadn’t even seen kids’ father yet, because he was very busy. Few things she knew is that father of girls was a widower, and that she had to look after kids. From the very morning children were crying. They were thirsty. So, in a hurry Elisabeth took three bottles of different drinks for each of them. And because triplets, as well as twins, are usually dressed the same, Beth confused them. She gave milk to Sophie, water to Anna, and orange juice to Giselle. Silence appeared in the air… But only for a second. Girls started to cry even harder, and threw bottles away. Beth was lost and didn’t know what to do. Unexpectedly Will ran into the room and started to pick up bottles from the floor saying “Oh, no, no, no, that’s not going to work. Giselle loves water”. He gave bottle to Giselle. “Anna loves milk”, he gave bottle to Anna. “And Sophie loves orange juice”, he gave bottle to Sophie. “That’s right”. Confused and shocked Elisabeth was looking at Will with her wide open eyes. Time went, and eventually Beth learned how to distinguish between girls, even though they were triplets. At last she decided to stay to look after kids, and she got closer with Will, and later the got married. But there were two conditions that Beth’s father Martin set. Will had to take their last name Rockwell, and dreamed about grandson who would continue Rockwell’s line. Will had a lot if sibling, so there was no reason not to take Rockwell’s name, he agreed and Elisabeth and him had a great wedding. They both kept their promises, and Beth gave a birth to boy, whom they named Martin after his famous grandfather prospector.

Thanks to his parents Martin was very educated and polite, he was true aristocrat. From the very childhood he was surrounded with love and support just like his older triplets sisters, which played its role in his future as well. Even though Martin split his inheritance from parents with his sisters, it still was so huge that there was no need for him to work at all. However, he was raised with the thought that education is one of the most important things he could’ve achieve in life. So, one day Martin was casually walking down the street he had never ever been on. He stumbled across very bad looking house. It was old, and it was literally falling apart. Martin thought that it was absolutely unacceptable for a civilized city to have such awful buildings. And suddenly he heard baby’s cry coming out of the window on the third floor. Without thinking for a second Martin ran into the building and went up the holed stairs. Then with fast-beating heart he froze at the doorway. He couldn’t believe his own eyes. There was a room full of people. They were wearing some rags, some were sleeping on the dirty floor, and there were little kids, even an infant. Both sides were scared at first. Martin was shocked and didn’t know what to do, while other people were looking at him with frighten moving away from the doorway. Martin slowly walked to the woman who was holding an infant. She held baby to herself trying to cover him, and shut her eyes. “It’s ok, I won’t hurt you. I just want to help”, said Martin trying to call her down. Woman opened her eyes. “See? Who are you people and what are you doing here?”. They started to exchange glances mumbling something. “Are you really here to help?”, quietly asked woman. “Yes, I am. I was walking near this house when I heard your baby’s cry. I didn’t even know what to think”. Woman, whose name was Marcy looked around the room, around the people, and started. She told Martin that this house had been a home for many homeless people for a whole year. There were different people. Someone had problems with alcohol, someone lost everything sitting in the poker desk. Marcy herself said that her husband was murdered a year and a half ago, while during her maternity leave. Murderer had never been found, and Marcy didn’t have enough money to pay for apartment. She was living for a six month with money that she had, but they were not endless. Marcy had no one to leave her son with, and at some point the owner of apartment kicked her out for nonpayment. Martin was listening to Marcy and couldn’t believe it. After all this Martin began huge process of helping that people. He started with Marcy. He put her in room in his own mansion, and gave her everything she needed for her son James. All other people had a chance to personally discuss their problems with Martin, and get back to normal life. Martin also managed to push local government to demolish that collapsing house. It took almost one year to solve all these problems. During that year Marcy was living in Martin’s mansion, and by the end of it they got very close. Eventually they decided to marry, and had second son whom they named Bill.

Though they were brothers, Bill and James were very different. Their dissimilarity was so obvious that it was noticeable even in their appearance: Bill had a mustache, and his skin tone was light, while James’ was dark, and he didn’t have any mustache. But those were not the only differences. By the time brothers were adults the American Civil War had started. And both James and Bill were drafted to two different armies. James became a Confederate soldier, and Bill became a Union soldier. They both were patriots, and they participated in battles, but had opposite points of view. There was one battle that ended their service. It was Gettysburg campaign. James and Bill happened to present on the same battle. They were pointing guns at each other and couldn’t believe their eyes. Brothers were not really close, but Bill managed to recognize James, as well as James did eventually. Of course they didn’t pull the trigger, but realizing the fact they fight against each other made them think about what they were doing. That battle was extremely brutal and rough, and James was seriously injured, and then sent to the hospital. He stayed there for a long time, until the war was over, but nothing really helped and James remained disabled for the rest of his life. Although, he met there his future wife Lorelei, who helped him recover, who was always near him and who then gave a birth to boy they named Robert. In the meantime Bill had to keep fighting. He was lucky enough to avoid any serious injuries, and he was rewarded many times. However, war always leaves a trail in human mind, and despite the fact Bill won, he was not happy about it at all. But there was a helping hand which managed to pull him out of postwar depression. It belonged to Linda — curly blonde girl he once met at the pub. She was a waitress, and that day Bill decided to go rouge. Linda noticed how much he was ordering and sat beside him. They had a long conversation about million things, especially about the war. And that was what Bill needed — he had no one to get that out, no one to speak to. Before that evening. They found themselves having a lot of common, and their relationship led to birth of new Rockwell — Tim Rockwell.

From the very young age Tim was dreaming about travelling. He wanted to see all countries, to meet people, to see how they live, to feel explore cultures. His dream had come true, but partly… During his life Tim lived in numerous different places in America. But one of those days he had to share his dream. He went to the South, to Arizona, and there he met a small group of Native Americans — an Indian tribe. Tim was terribly curious about their way of life and traditions. But the tribe never accepted outsiders, all members were Indians. So, Tim failed to explore that culture from the inside. But he asked the head of the tribe to let him see how they spend their days, and to make some notes, while Tim will be living nearby in his shelter. The head was against at first, but then he thought that it could be a way to earn something on it. They made a deal: Tim could stay and watch the tribe for as long as he wanted, but in exchange he had to pay “contribution to the development of the tribe”. Money was never a problem for Rockwells, so Tim agreed. First few days were pretty productive. But later Tim knew everything about tribes habits and their daily routine, so he asked the head of the tribe, whose name was Rahul, to bring some things they used for hunting or for special rituals. Rahul absolutely refused to show such things to “outsider”, as he called Tim, and said that he would never do it even for a million dollars. After this Tim decided to leave the tribe and continue his travel. But that sleepless night when he was sorting out his notes a young woman ran into his shelter and asked him about his next moves. “I will leave your tribe in peace, don’t worry. I won’t be here by morning”, said Tim. “We can work It out”, said woman. ”What if bring you all things you wanted to see right now, and in exchange you will take me with you?”. Tim was over the moon on the one hand, but he was suspicious on the other. “Why do want leave? This is your family, they all here. And where will you even go?”, asked Tim. “This is not a family, this is prison. In loving family they don’t make you do some weird rituals. And I don’t care where to go, just further away from this place. I could go with you, for example, couldn’t I?” , she replied. “We are strangers, I am an “outsider”, I don’t even your name, and you want to go with me?”, in amazement asked Tim. “My name is Sitara, and there is no way you refuse it. I know everything about Indians, I can tell you a lot”. After a few minutes of talking Sitara went back home for the first items. She managed to bring all Tim wanted, and she hadn’t been noticed. Towards morning they finished and were on their way to new lands. Sitara turned out to be as curious about other parts of the world as Tim himself. Together they visited all cities and small towns with they could, at last settled in Texas where their son Richard was born.

At the same time other member of huge Rockwell family, Robert, had different life. He was a coeval of his cousin Tim, but they were completely different just like their fathers Bill and James were. Most people probably would count Robert’s life boring, especially if they compare it with Tim’s. Nevertheless, Robert himself never thought so. He was very religious man. Most of his life he dedicated to church. He was living as Puritans — followers of Calvinism in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who advocated the deepening of the reformation, carried out from above in the form of Anglicanism, and the eradication of the remaining Catholic elements. They played an important role in American revolution of eighteenth century. There were a lot of political events connected church and religion, but the main theme we are interested in is Rockwell’s line. Unlike his cousin Tim, Robert was very selective as all Puritans. And, oddly enough, there was a woman who met the criteria. Her name was Dorothy. They met at church and got into conversation. That’s how their romance began. Two years after their marriage they had son Kile.

And again, Rockwell cousins went different ways. Richard — Tim’s son — was rancher. He had a huge farm with cattle. It was his business. His farm was outside the city, and on one of his weekends he went to the city to relax. He came into pub with scene where different kinds of performances were presented. There were some chestnuts and sketches that were only making Richard think of coming back on farm and having a sleep. And then suddenly a young girl with expressive make up and a rose in her styled blonde hair came out of curtain. She drew everyone’s attention and there were ten seconds of absolute silence. Music started to play slowly, and girl was moving smoothly following the tempo. Richard fell in love with her at the first sight. He was looking at her like there were only him, her and that scene. But few minutes later music stopped, girl winked at Richard, and ran backstage. Feeling lost and throwing his hands at the air Richard stood up and started to look a way that led backstage. He found stairs leading to the scene and then ran behind the curtain. He saw a long hall in which was that girl walking away from him. “Wait!”, Richard screamed. “Wow, cowboy, you’re not allowed to be here”, some man appeared from nowhere and immediately stopped Richard. “Who is she?”, asked Richard. “That one? It’s Rosy. Our best of the best. Number one showgirl. Why? Think you have chances? Ha-ha-ha. Come on, cowboy, go back to saloon”. “I need to talk to her”, said Richard. “Yeah, yeah, sure. But not here, these are dressing rooms”, replied guy. “What about tip?”, said Richard and took out 100$ dollars. “Hey! No funny business. Got it? You have three minutes”, replied guy taking the money. Richard knocked the door girl entered and came in after “Come in”. She didn’t expect to see him. “What are you doing here?! This is dressing room, not a saloon! Get out!”, girl screamed. “I just wanted to say that you look gorgeous. And your dance, it was outstanding”, said Richard with kind smile on his face. Some obvious words women usually hear, especially that young girl, but this time it was different. He said that in such lovely and sincere way, that Rosy hesitated and turned red. “Well, thank you. But it doesn’t mean you can just walk into dressing rooms and say this”, she said. “But I knocked”, replied Richard. “You did, but anyway…”, said Rosy. It was obvious that she was interested in him, though her feelings yet were not as strong as Richard’s. That evening he drove her home, and after that he was watching her performances each weekends, until she finally agreed to go out with him. Time went and as Rosy and Richard were getting older, they were thinking about kids more and more often, especially Richard. He dreamed about an heir or heiress, who would had continued his father’s business, but it didn’t happen. Rosy couldn’t get pregnant, so they decided to adopt a girl. Her name was Betty. Richard didn’t really care about continuing Rockwell’s line, because he just wanted his life’s work were not wasted. Well, however, Rockwell’s line wasn’t aborted…

Kyle preferred to make a living without putting too much effort into it. That’s why he set himself a goal not to work all life. He wanted to provide himself with peaceful retirement. And he managed to achieve his goal. His friend Frank offered him to open a small headwear store with their own production. They saved up some money, even borrowed some, rent a small building, then rent some equipment, and had a successful start. When they started to get bigger, Kile thought that they needed models to show customers how the would look wearing this or that hat. “Pictures will also make store look modern”, Kile added. Frank put up a sing on the front door which said “Our store is going to have a new look. You can become part of it! Ask manager for details”. It was the day Kile met Lois. A lot of young girls signed up for photoshoot, and they all seemed to look absolutely the same, except her, except Lois. She cool as a cucumber, while all other girls were so nervous they were shaking. She was sitting waiting for her turn in the queue, smoking and looking through the window. And even at that moment, when she didn’t pose at all, when she wasn’t ready, she looked more photogenic then all other girls. Flapper, that’s who she was. Frank and Kile couldn’t help noticing such contrasting figure and took a picture of her right at that moment. Guys held photoshoot, saw he it all looked and at last offered Lois offered to work as a model for them. Few years of working together made its job — Kile and Lois started to spend much more time together. A bit later they married, and after 5 years Lois gave a birth to Thomas.

Thomas’ and Betty’ meeting was pretty fun, because they were relatives but they had now idea. That time Thomas was running his dad’s business, they were still afloat. It was evening, and Thomas and Kile were about to close, when Betty suddenly appeared and said that she need something warm for winter. “I am sorry, young lady, but we are closed. Come back tomorrow”, said old Kile. “Who is there?”, asked Thomas. “Nah, nevermind, just some girl. It’s not safe on these streets today, especially at night. What was she thinking about?”, replied Kile. “Look outside, dad, there is snowstorm! How are you going to let her go alone and without a hat!”, indignantly said Thomas, opening up the door. Lois and Thomas saw each other aaand… Norman Rockwell. That’s if you make long story short. So, by the time cousins Kile and Richard had their own children, their relationships had happened to be absolutely broken, because they were living in different parts of the USA. And by the time Betty and Thomas grew up, Lois, Richard and Rosy had past away. And since Richard and Rosy were not in touch with Kile and Lois, nor Betty neither Thomas knew they were cousins. Of course, they were not blood relatives, because Betty was adopted, but formally cousin married cousin. That’s how crazy life might be.

That was a loooooong story about Norman Rockwell’s birth. I hope, you managed not to lost in all these family roots.

Thanks for reading.