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Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003 - 11:56 a.m. Hey!!! I am having such fun with the digicam and fotki.com. Thanks to mortiana for steering me that way. As I thought about one of the pictures I posted there, I realized that some old stories will be lost in time unless I record them. I have already lost lots of the facts concerning them. G'ma Cora was already feeble when I was born. She died when I was 4 of congestive heart failure just like my mom did and like I may also. My only memory of her was at a Christmas when I had gotten a paper sack of Christmas candy after the program at the Grange. It had peanuts, ribbon candy and a big orange. Oranges were still pretty rare in the mid 40's and I can remember the sad feeling I had when we went to the grand's place after the program and I was urged to share something with G'ma. I was happy to share but knew that my orange was the only thing she would be able to eat since she didn't have many teeth for cany and nuts anymore. I was probably just barely 4 but the bitter sweet memory remains. I am glad I shared and I am glad I can remember that I knew I didn't want G'ma to know she wasn't totally welcome to the orange. I have more pictures of her and me. I like to think I made her happy. She had a hard life and pleasures were few and small according to Mamma. She was the daughter of a traveling minister who followed the railroad out West starting churches in the towns where the railroad passed through. Each town had a plot that was designated for a church. I wonder how many he planted there. I never asked Mamma what her mother had told her of that time but I saw the Bible he carried. It wasn't in Mamma's things when she died. She saved everything and I can't imagine where it went. J put all the stuff in her basement and it may turn up some day. When G'ma married G'pa, she followed him all over Oregon and Washington, trying to homestead on the dry barren lands. They finally settled in the Tri-Cities; at first far to the east in the sand dunes and then the last 20 years of her life closer to the river where they had 5 or 10 acres of a strawberry truck farm. This was where Mamma grew up and I lived between 5 and 10 while she took care of Gpa and Jackie. Gpa still had his team of horses, a big black and a big white. They were Prince and Cyclone, but I don't recall anymore which was which. Even though I loved horses, I was wary of these guys. They were so big and Gpa would warn me to stay far away. I was wary of him too. He seemed very mean and scowly and I don't remember him ever talking to me. Mamma was the youngest and he called her 'Babe'. When her sister died leaving a 4 year old Jackie, Gpa and Gma adopted him and then when Gma died, he lived alone with Gpa. He was a teen ager at the time and Mamma would cook and clean for them. Finally we moved next to their house in a house trailer for the last years of Gpa's life. Gpa still drove his team into town when he was in his 90's. It must have been at least 5 miles and he would get supplies and then get drunk. The team knew the way home and if he could make ito out to the wagon or someone would toss him in, they would deliver him back to the homeplace. One time his old tabby tom, Tagalong, followed him as he went to town and got run over on the way. Gpa put him in the wagon and then put him behind the big kitchen range when he got home to wait for burial the next day. To everyone's surprise Tagalong had come back to life by the next morning and lived many more years! Gma lost 2 little boys under 2 early in her life. They may have been twins. Then she lost a 30 year old daughter later. They were always very poor and she probably worked hard. My cousin Mary was from the other side of my family (my dad's) but she lived just up the lane half a mile and in her teens she would come down to help Gma clean. She tld me in a recent letter that she felt so sorry for Gma with her bad knees having to clean up after those men. I would like to think Gma was in Heaven but I am not sure of that. She was a good woman and thought alot about God. Mamma told me that, but also told me she was a Christian Scientist at the close of her life. Now that probably didn't mean she went to their services, but rather read their books and followed their teaching. When one is too poor to afford doctors, one must believe there is hope somewhere. I only know what the Bible says, that if we call upon the Lord Jesus He will save us and I hope Gma did that. I have lots more memories of Cousin Mary. She was the only girl among 4 boys. In fact, among Daddy's family there were only 2 girl cousins until I and J came along even though he and a brother were the only boys in their generation. She was 12 or 15 years older than I and I was like a dolly to her. She married late, just a little before I did and she sent me a white bunting and blue outfit her son wore when my first was a baby. I still have those among the keepsakes. She lives in Hawaii now and writes books. She was a duputy sheriff there and wrote of her adventures, then wrote about our mutual Irish grandmother who was such a domineering force in the lives of her children. Now she is writing a story of her youth. She intends to write the story of her mom someday and I look forward to that. That story had mythic proportions in our lives, complete with thwarted love, disappearing savings, and cruelty. Mary is a happy lady and is very young at heart and body. She is glad we are in touch again and often mentions the Lord and the Bible to me in her letters. I have shared my testimony with her, but she also is Christian Scientist. Lord, You will have to sort us all out. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by You. Mary has only one child who lives in Hawaii also. In fact he did the cooking for their Thanksgiving dinner! I have one other male cousin left from that side of the family whom I have lost touch with, but Mary hasn't. I like to think of her coming down to help Gma and that Gma had a young friend who cared about her. 
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