Family Lessons

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My mother was born on March 13, 1932, in Robertson County, Tennessee. She and a twin sister were delivered by their grandmother Ollie, a midwife who delivered 200 babies. Her parents named my mother Ollie Evelyn and called her Evelyn. Her twin sister survived only a short time.

Two years later on March 9, 1934, along came another little girl, Nannie Lou. Evelyn and Nannie Lou lived with their parents, Hassell and Lorene, on Lorene’s father’s farm. Lorene was a hard-working homemaker who washed her family’s clothes on a washboard, carried water from a spring, and made hers and her daughters’ clothing on her mother’s treadle sewing machine. Hassell was a farmer, who farmed as a sharecropper for his father-in-law. Another sister was born while Evelyn and Nannie Lou were little, but she lived only a few months.

When Evelyn was six years old, she began to walk two miles to the two-room Sandy Springs School. Evelyn didn’t like walking to school, because the other children left her behind. When it was time for her to start second grade, Evelyn’s mother let five-year-0ld Nannie Lou start to school early. She thought having her little sister to walk with her would help Evelyn like school better.

When Evelyn and Nannie Lou were six and eight, they welcomed another baby girl into the family. Lavon was born on February 10, 1940. The family of five soon moved away from their maternal grandparents’ farm so that Hassell could sharecrop for another farmer in the area.

On March 15, 1943, Lorene gave birth to her only son Joel.  At ten years old, Evelyn was responsible for the laundry and cooking while her mother recovered from childbirth. One month after his birth, the family moved to yet a third farm where my grandfather again farmed as a sharecropper.

The U.S. Army conducted maneuvers in the United States between 1941 and 1944 in order to prepare troops to fight in World War II. Several of these maneuvers were conducted in Tennessee, where the topography is similar to Europe. During one of the maneuvers, American soldiers camped near the Farmers’ home in Robertson County. Evelyn’s mother earned extra money by washing laundry for soldiers. This work couldn’t have been easy for a woman with two babies and two little girls. The family was grateful when the soldiers left them a large bag of dry beans when they left their camp.

My mother stayed close to her parents and to all of her siblings, getting together with one another often. For many years, the brother and three sisters they had a special get-together each spring to celebrate their February 10 to March 15 birthdays.

The two oldest sisters who grew up so close in age have a special bond that continues to the present. Their example of staying close has continued in the daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters born to them.

Here is a Thanksgiving 2008 photo of Evelyn, Nannie Lou (now shortened to Nan), and their daughters and granddaughters. If we were taking the photo today, my granddaughters Clara and Eva would be in it, too!

My mother got comfort from her little sister who walked with her to school; they still comfort one another today. While I was out of town last weekend, my brother took my mother to her annual cousin reunion. Wow, I hated to miss it, but I couldn’t go because I was with family!

Both of Mother’s sisters were there, but their little brother wasn’t. Though Mother has improved since her stroke last year, she still struggles with her speech. On Monday morning she told me, “Call Joel.”

My mama and my daddy, too, taught me how to love my family–the girls, the boys, the aunts, the uncles, the cousins–everybody. On your list of things to teach your children, don’t leave out that one. That’s a lesson they can carry with them the rest of their lives.

On the second visit
Joseph made himself known to his brothers,
and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh.
Then Joseph sent word
and invited Jacob his father
and all his relatives to come to him,
seventy-five persons in all.
Acts 7:13-14

Sometimes relations with relatives can be tough. It’s worth working it out if we can–for the sake of our children and for our own sakes, too. Whew! Talk about tough family relations–Joseph certainly had a tough time with his relatives. After all, the reason he was in Egypt was that his brothers had sold him as a slave!

 

 

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