Grandparents Give Up On Betty

Bessie and James moved around a lot, because he was a school teacher. The two lived in Camden South Carolina for a few short months. Here the young couple learned Bessie was pregnant and both were very happy, but Bessie wanted to be closer to her parents. Mary her mother would be such a help after the birth of the baby. James got his teaching job

So, I started doing research on Ancestry Classroom at school and I found her birth, marriage, and death records and her husband, kids, and parents. Next I searched up her parents. Then I found they’re kids and found out my grandma had siblings she never told me

To my understanding, the movie Home for the Holidays not only reveals a lot of potential family conflicts, but also reflects a lot of different communication approaches of the various family members. As a foreigner, I have never experienced Thanksgiving homecoming dinner before, so I may cannot understand some of the holiday customs in the movie, but I found out that their family interactions are interesting indeed.

Prior to World War II, Robert and Bessie’s close relatives literally meant family that lived nearby, most of whom were kin to Bessie. The only relatives of Robert’s that resided in or near Bradley was his brother and business partner, Harry and his wife, Flossie. In addition to Bessie’s parents, Merritt and Mary Kirby, other members of her close extended family were Bessie’s sister and brother-in-law, Pearl and John Madden, her brother and sister-in-law, Emmett and Nellie Kirby, and numerous nephews and nieces. Particularly significant among these relatives was their niece,

Alexia and her siblings are all 2 years apart leaving Alexia to be the youngest.

They start with their youngest and only son, James Jr., age 2. Then, they say goodnight to their daughters: Dianne, age 3; Vanessa, age 4; Dorreen, age 5; Susie, age 6; Alice, age 7; and Betty, age 8. Eventually, James

After the Great Depression, Gladys, which is Bonnie’s mother, and eight of her siblings moved to Detroit, Michigan from a small town in Tennessee. Gladys and her younger sister, Maylene, worked in a candy factory to help take care of the family. Their father recently had a stroke and the mother worked at home taking care of her children.

In 1934 Jerry and Nora (Foley) leave their home in South St. Louis at 2322A South Compton Avenue and move to North St. Louis near Grand Avenue. They rent the upstairs of a house at 4133A Peck. Moving with them are their two daughters, Helen and Ann Flynn. Meanwhile, Frank and Nora (Flynn) Young, who had been living with the Flynns on South Compton, moved into a house in the next block at 4202A Peck. (F32)

Lorna grew up on a dirt road in a shotgun house. The house was on 8 Green Alley near the old Union Baptist Church in Plateau, AL. Her house was green with only four rooms. It consisted of a kitchen, a living room and two bedrooms. It had no running water or indoor plumbing, the living room had one big brick fireplace, and the kitchen had a wood stove for cooking. Her children Thomas and Takeysa

My grandma had survived a hard life, and yet managed to raise four responsible, well-educated, and successful children. All this she did while working as a respected psychiatric nurse and a state mental health board member. Although she had had and was still overcoming trials in life, I always knew she would be there and cared about me and my life. As my brother and I grew older and were unable to visit my grandparents as often as we

Early in their lives, two young sisters, Ruth and Lucille, experience loss and abandonment from the men in the family. Their grandfather had died in a train derailment into Lake Fingerbone before they were born, and their father leaves them while they are very young. Then their mother commits suicide, but not before dropping the girls off on their grandmother’s porch. Moreover, then, “she sailed in Bernice’s Ford from the top of a cliff named Whiskey Rock into the blackest depth of the lake (23), again into Lake Fingerbone. After only a few months their grandmother dies leaving the girls to the remainder of the family, a collection of eccentric females. The girls deal with all of this by relying on each other. Soon, their great Aunt’s,

“Young people need something stable to hang on to- a cultural connection, a sense of their own past, a hope for their own future. Most of all, they need what grandparents can give them.” This quote by Jay Kesler hits the nail on the head. There is so much to learn and to glean from our grandparents. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have grandparents as they either have passed away, or maybe there just isn’t an enjoyable relationship between the grandparents and their grandkids. For those whose grandparents are still alive, I urge them to reach out, visit them and learn about history from their perspective, learn what it was like back in the 20s, 30s and 40s. If you don’t have living grandparents, go visit a nursing home! My mother has worked at nursing homes since I was a little girl and let me tell you, those who don’t have dementia, love talking about their younger years, and about how life was for them when they were kids. My favorite time of the year was summer time, not due to school being out, but for the reason that it was the time I got to spend with just my grandparents, discovering facts about our family, developing home economical skills like gardening, baking and the inevitable chores and of course going on trips.

For many people, Grandpa is a storyteller, someone to go fishing with, and someone who has your back no matter what. The experience I had with my grandpa was a little different. I never got the opportunity to meet my great-grandfather Liston Grider, but he still somehow managed to have a huge impact on my life. Sometimes my mom would tell stories about him; happy memories from her childhood, sad ones that were painful for her to tell, and everything in between. I thought I had heard it all, but this past summer I learned something about my great grandpa that would perhaps impact my life forever. This story was not told by my mom like usual, but by someone who was a complete stranger to me. The lessons I learned would not be taught in a single day, but over the span of a month through a series of Facebook messages and letters in the mail. The words I read upon opening those messages and letters would change my life forever, permanently transform my beliefs, and show me what it truly means to be an American.

As the family grew older, every one separated and as my cousins and I got older and had our own children the holidays at grandmothers house have faded away. No one even goes to grandmothers house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and there are no more Easter Sunday egg