I’m postponing Joseph LARKIN’s blog post until tomorrow. Today I’d like to take a day to remember my paternal Grandpa’s (Gene DRAKE’s) sister, Ruby DRAKE WETZEL. She passed away this weekend. Her daughter married into my mom’s family and is my maternal aunt so this affects both sides of my family. Please say a prayer for all of my family.
Aunt Ruby.
Aunt Ruby with my cousin, Terry BATES.
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
January is coming to a close.
It’s hard to believe. Seems like time goes by faster every year!
This week we’re celebrating 2 birthdays and death date on the blog and at home we’re celebrating a grandson’s birthday. Here’s what the schedule looks like:
Monday January 30th: On Monday we honor the life of Joseph LARKIN, my paternal 3rd great grandfather. He died on this date in 1919.
Friday February 3rd: Today we celebrate the birth date of William DRAKE, yet another of my paternal 3rd great grandfathers. William was born in February but I am not certain of the exact date. For purposes of the blog, we’ll celebrate his birthday today.
I start a new job this week so if I can, I will fill in the other days of the week with a story and/or photograph as I’m able. It’s just hard for me to say how the week will go until after tomorrow. If you have a story you’re dying to tell, go ahead and write it down for me and I will publish it with credits to you- or send a photo with a caption and I’ll publish it with credits to you. I always enjoy having guests on the blog. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar- this isn’t a newspaper. It’s just a story telling medium that serves to save our family histories for future generations.
Until then, here’s a photograph for the day:
Bates cousins. Top row left to right: Lisa (me), Clayton, and Terry. Bottom row left to right: Doyle, Tracy, and my brother Cortney.
Before we get started, I want to share a photo with you and some additional information. First, I don’t think I included Mam’s middle name which is ‘Marguerite’. I thought I had written a blog post about how I think she got the name Marguerite but apparently I just shared that privately with a few people. I will add that to the list of stories to tell on weeks that are slow. Second item: I’ve been looking for this photo for a while and finally found it. This is Mam as a child with her classmates at Poynor School. I have written down somewhere what year it is but when the picture was digitized that information wasn’t included. When I find the information again I’ll be sure to pass it along. I have marked Mam with a red arrow above her head. She’s on the top row on the left side. There are other relatives (DRAKE’s and LARKIN’s) in this photo and I will identify them as I can- again, I need to find the written documentation and the physical photograph in order to pass along that information.
Poynor School students, Delaware County, Oklahoma near the Missouri state line (near Southwest City, McDonald County, Missouri).
Today, some stories from those who loved Mam. (If you missed yesterday’s post, go back and read it first here.) Before I pass along these stories though, I want to make a small correction to what I posted yesterday. I made the statement that she raised grandchildren, nephews, and a brother-in-law. I should have been more clear. She helped raise these people. There is one grandson whom she raised and adopted. The other three grandchildren, nephews, and brother-in-law were people who lived with her when other options were not optimal or not available. On to the stories.
From her son, Roy:
Mom was born, raised and lived with very little in things but was rich in love. Her life was spent working for/in the church and in helping others. She helped raise four children, three nephews, four grandchildren and one brother-in-law; and, became care giver for both her mother and mother-in-law! She was always cooking for someone in need (sick) and taking it to them. She’d clean and wash for them. She always showered them in love. And, these things were acts of love as much as being a good neighbor. She’d take old folks to town and back for groceries. Hers was a life of service. She practiced God’s love and lived it. I don’t know how she did it; and, to the extent that he had time, dad did the same. I have no doubt that her reward in heaven will far exceed mine – and, I suspect, many others. My greatest asset will always be the examples they set for me and the rules they set and enforced.
From her grandchildren:
Mam was good about writing notes to her grandchildren. Mine and my brother’s notes are packed away but my cousin Angela was able to put her hands on her treasured note from Mam and shared it with us. Thank you, Angie! We each received notes like this but each one was tailored to the specific grandchild so while we all received her standard, timeless advice, the personal notes to each of us were slightly different. In
From her granddaughter, Angela- the note Mam wrote to her:
My own experiences with Mam:
Mam spent so many of her years teaching Sunday School classes to the younger generations. When my children were young and we attended Poynor Baptist Church near Southwest City, McDonald County, Missouri, Mam was still there teaching the little ones. I’m grateful for her life of service, for the lessons she taught me both inside and outside the church, and for the lessons she taught my children. I appreciated her openness. She was always willing to share her own life lessons in order to help teach me ways to confront various situations in my own life. I won’t go into details but she rarely hesitated to give examples of situations from her own life to show how to (or how not to) respond to a particular situation. Like Angie’s note above, Mam was always directing us back to scripture for answers to problems as well and quick to remind us that maybe we needed to pray about a problem. Any time I had questions to ask, she was willing to take the time to answer them and if my behavior got a little off track she wasn’t afraid to set me straight even if I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
Thank you to those of you who shared some stories with me and if I missed anyone’s story please message me and let me know so I can include it in the weekend wrap up.
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
This is going to be a two-part series with the shorter part being today. Yesterday was full of emergencies, car repairs, computer repairs that didn’t fix the problem, internet issues, more sickness…you get the picture. So today I will basically introduce Audrey (“Mam”) as a helping person and will continue with more stories on Wednesday.
Yesterday was Audrey’s birthday. Audrey is my paternal grandmother. I think I miss my grandmas more and more as I grow older.
A photo of Audrey about 4 years before the newspaper article below was written.
I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take with this blog post until I found this article yesterday on Newspapers.com:
Wednesday, 9 Nov 1960, Miami (Oklahoma) Daily News-Record
Mam (Audrey) always was a helper. She raised her four children but then she also raised four grandchildren, three nephews, and a brother-in-law. I knew about her grandchildren living with her- they were my cousins and one of the reasons I enjoyed going to Mam’s house often. I had no idea that she had raised three nephews and a brother-in-law, though. So there is a lot to find out about Mam and all the ways she helped people. I’m still gathering stories if you’d like to send me yours.
I apologize for the brevity of this post but real life gets in the way sometimes. I promise to deliver lots of stories on Wednesday to go with this theme and the newspaper article I found. I’m looking forward to it. I hope you are as well. (On Wednesday I was planning to tell you about new information I’ve received on people I’ve blogged about in the past. That will be pushed back to later in the week- maybe Friday.)
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
On days when I’m not scheduled to do a blog post I’m going to try to post photos. This month I’ll use the current Genealogy-Photo-a-Day Instagram challenge as a theme guide. Today’s theme is ‘baby’. Today I’ll post a photo of me taken just after I was born. My paternal great grandfather, Mark DRAKE, is holding me and my paternal great grandmother, Edith (HUBBARD) DRAKE, is standing beside us. If you have photos you’d like to share just send them to me and I’ll be happy to post them with a caption that you provide and with credit to you.
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
