I am a subscriber from afar to the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal and look forward to receiving it each week. When I read your request for readers to submit letters of thanksgiving, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to express my love and appreciation to Mathews County which was the home to generations of my family who were watermen, farmers, citizens, and people of faith. These men and women, whom I have traced back to the late 1700s, tilled the land and fished the local waters while raising their families as well as sending husbands, brothers, and sons to war. 

I wonder if they ever thought that in the 21st century, their descendants would be loving and enjoying the fruits of their labors and still watching the ospreys build their nests, fish jumping in the water, crabs raising their claws in defense, gulls flying overhead, and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets over the beautiful waters of the many creeks and mighty Chesapeake Bay. This Thanksgiving,...