by Betty Martin
HOUSTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Amid the worst U.S. recession in nearly three decades and unemployment figures hovering at 10.2 percent, one extended American family, like millions across the nation, is preparing for the annual day set aside to give thanks for what they cherish most.
For many, Thursday's Thanksgiving will be a painful reminder of what it was for like the first American pilgrims who sat down for that meager first feast after months or even years of famine, drought and other hardships.
For the Martins, Chase, Stiteler, Burnett and Oblas family who will be celebrating Thanksgiving just west of Houston or north of Dallas, it will be about surviving medical and economic uncertainty.
Chris Stiteler, an independent geological science contractor for the oil business who lives in Houston's Energy Corridor area with Susan Martin, an art teacher at Scrogins Elementary in Houston, have spent Thanksgivings together for the past three years.
This year, however, the two are celebrating separately, Chris at a family meal shared with his older brother and sister-in-law in the home of his niece and her family in Sherman, Texas.
Susan will be with her two sisters, her son and her 85-year-old mother at Landry's restaurant near Katy, just 3 miles from where her mother lives in an assisted-living facility.
"I'm thankful that during this downturn in the business, I've had gainful employment to provide a nest egg for this time that the oil industry has laid off independent contractors as well as their own staff," said Chris, 57.
"I could join other companies now, but I'm choosing to wait until I can help the industry find new reserves and uplift old reserves."
Joe Oblas, his nephew by marriage to his niece, Leslie Oblas, will be hosting the traditional feast of turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and other goodies with other members of the family, some coming as far away as Seattle, Washington.
It's important to be together this year, Chris said, in the spirit that brought the pilgrims and Native Americans to share a table at that first Thanksgiving.
"The main thing we're thankful for this year is that Leslie has survived thyroid cancer, that it was diagnosed in time and the treatment has been successful," Chris said. "Her husband Joe has as mall upstart business he started before the downturn and he's fortunate to have a house-building business that has weathered the storm when some banks failed and some banks that said they would invest broke their contracts."
"It's been a very hard year with me in treatment, with the banks not lending," said Leslie, 37.
While Leslie was in months of treatment, her three sons, Trey, 5; Austin, 9; and Jake, 11, got the flu or a form of mononucleosis and were sent a few miles away to live with their grandfather, a 69-year-old retired Air Force officer, James Burnett, and his wife, Stephanie.
"They have all recovered nicely," said Chris, originally from the Beaumont area and a periodic songwriter.
Shadowy spots were discovered earlier this year on Susan's lungs, but so far X-rays have shown no progression.
Unlike Susan's health care coverage through an agreement with the Houston Independent School District, independent contractors like Chris have to purchase private insurance, often at high premiums.
Joining the family in Sherman will be her brother Jason and his wife, Romina Burnett, attorneys who met in law school and work together in their own firm in Seattle.
She focuses on immigration law and he is a litigator in personal and corporate law, and they are bringing the family's youngest members, a 2-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son, from Washington state, who will be making their debut among a few of their relatives.
"My nephew, my brother's son, I haven't seen him in 15 years," Chris said. "For our family, this Thanksgiving is really special because we've survived and beaten cancer and all of our family is healthy now."
Some family traditions never seem to change, he said. "The women are organizing everything. The men in our family just go out in the backyard and have a drink, smoke and wait for the women to tell us what to do."
Susan elected to stay behind at their home in Houston to share Thanksgiving with her mother, Ruth Martin, widowed matriarch of the Martin family, who is wheelchair bound after suffering a quadruple heart attack, a stroke, the removal of one malignant kidney and eye surgeries during the past couple of decades.
Ruth, who was born in Alabama in the 1920s, said she looks forward to her 85th Thanksgiving celebration, where she will be surrounded by her three daughters, their husbands or significant friends and her sole grandson Aaron Martin, a 28-year-old clerk in the credit union of an oil company near Chris and his mother's home.
It was just after World War II when Ruth first came to Houston with her husband, Henry Lee Martin, who had just been discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps.
Ruth remembers her first disasters in the kitchen when she, as a new bride, prepared her first Thanksgiving meal for Henry and her in-laws.
Family faces around the Thanksgiving table have changed through the years, Ruth said, but the idea of unity remains strong.
"I'm thankful that we're going to all be together," Ruth said. "It's fine to be in a house, but I'm just glad to be anywhere we' re together as a family."
While the recession hasn't made much of a dent in her fixed income from Social Security, she is aware that it has taken a toll on her eldest daughter, a 60-year-old woman laid off from her job at a Houston newspaper in March.
That daughter, still struggling to find even freelance jobs in an economy where job seekers are about six deep for each employment opening, was unsure as late as Wednesday night as to whether she would be participating in this year's event.
Ruth's son-in-law Bob Chase, 52, a pipe fitter craftsman, was the one to choose the Martin family's Thanksgiving locale for its convenience to Grace Care, where Ruth has been afforded 24-hour care under her Medicare plan.
His mother and sisters, an Irish American family, live in New York, while his son and grandson live nearby and Bob said he's thankful they are all healthy.
"Everybody's doing good," Bob said. "It's the normal flow of nature. There are up times and there are down times. The up times will come back. What's important is the family atmosphere."
His wife, Marianne Martin Chase, 51, said the day will be mostly centered around Ruth, who has become too fragile for long-distance holidays.
"We have to go where she is, and Landry's (restaurant) has two buffets, traditional Thanksgiving food or seafood," said Marianne, a teacher at Pugh Elementary School in Houston.
"It's a day we all let bygones be bygones and put aside our differences in the spirit of harmony. This year, I'm thankful that I still have mama and that I have a job."
The extended family is a reflection of the country, Leslie said, a group of Christians and Jews, people who, like Romina, reflect Filippino culture, or Rob, whose grandparents grew up in Ireland, and who also give thanks for their heritage each Thanksgiving.
"I'm thankful we can melt all these cultures together and to pray for peace," Leslie said. "All human beings need to embrace each other. That was instilled in my brother, Jason, and I."
"The holidays are a great time to be thankful to whatever god we believe in for blessings that we have," Chris said.
"We pray for a way to live together and celebrate our differences, finding ways we can work in cooperation. That's the spirit that's been around since the pilgrims first met the Indians. That's the focus and that hasn't changed. In some ways, it's grown stronger."
Marianne agreed that Thanksgiving is, ultimately, a celebration of peace between people -- even members of the same family -- who bring different points of view to the table.
"It's about peace between people of different cultures and ideas," she said. "If the pilgrims and the Indians could be friends, why can't everyone else?"
