C. T. Suddeth

When I was 5, I asked Dad why his parents/my grandparents were brown skinned. He told me they were Ukrainian (in Michigan we lived where Polish/Ukrainians were common). All through school, I told everyone I was Ukrainian. When I was a sophomore at Michigan State University, my roommate was from Poland and lived near the Ukrainian border. When I told him I was Ukrainian, he laughed and told me my last name was not Slavic and Ukrainians were blond and fair-skinned.

I started on a long, unfinished research into family origins:

Grandpa Lawrence Suddeth—Celtic, English, Cherokee, Mattaponi—Shawnee probably.

Grandma Ova Short Suddeth—Yuchi—probably Cherokee, English.

Heck, I still like Ukrainians, we just aren’t family.