I’ve been told that this woman was very mean but it is not something I experienced in my young life. She and my great grandfather  lived in what we called the country. When I went to visit them I was in her direct care. With him rules were more likely to be relaxed 😊.

So many memories include her kitchen and her front porch. My great-grandmother was an awesome cook. She raised the chickens and eggs we ate. She churned the butter from a neighbor’s milk. The jams, jellies and vegetables she made and canned in the summer fed us all winter. The fruit and vegetables came from their very large garden. I remember climbing the pear and apple trees to gather the fruit. I was in heaven. The next closest to heaven feelings were her feather mattresses and pillows she made from the chicken feathers. Unfortunately I never desired to learn these skills. I wish I had. She also taught me how to feed the chickens, clean the yard and empty what they called the  slop jar. Jobs I hated. It was not pig slop as you might imagine. It was human waste from the night 😖. It was a while before they got indoor plumbing. Going to the outhouse at night was not wise. Visits from snakes and such. Back to the yard. I had to sweep the dirt to clean up chicken poop and to minimize the dust blown into the house.  Can you get ready for that?😀. She was an immaculate homemaker and that included the yard.

The women on the hill were early risers so after lunch the porch sitting began. The women nearest my great-grandmother’s house gathered on her porch. It was large and you could see almost every other home from her vantage point. All the latest news and gossip was shared until it was time to prepare dinner.

This woman was strong. I didn’t realize how strong. When she died I discovered she was born just as slavery ended. I can’t remember if she was the last baby born under slavery or the first born after it ended. Nevertheless,  she grew up under Jim Crow laws. She never got to vote. She had to play the role of societal submissive for survival sake. This strong woman was humiliated so her family could live. She never talked about her childhood or even my grandmother’s. I guess that was just how they were. To move forward they let go the pain of the past and dealt with the conditions or realities of the present.

I miss the innocence that I was allowed to experience during visits to a rural place during unsafe times because of her.

Thank you to her and others like her.