Growing up, I knew I had a lot of grandparents, but it wasn't until I was older that I realized just how unusual it was. I especially knew that I had a lot of grandparents on Christmas Eve, when we'd leave our house around 3pm just to make the rounds and see everyone. I didn't have a lot of grandparents because of blended families or anything like that. I had a lot of grandparents because there were many generations of my family still living. When I was born, there were 5 generations of women on my mother's side. I have included a picture of us. It includes my great-great Grandma Cobb, my great Grandma Geneva, my Grandma Jean, my Mother and I. Althought there were not 5 generations in every family line, there were 4 generations in each family line. You see, I had 1 great-great grandmother, 4 great grandmothers, one great grandfather and all four grandparents when I was born. I don't remember my great-great grandmother. I can't tell you how old I was when she died or anything about her, but I have a picture.
I can tell you a lot of things about all my great grandparents. I have memories about times spent with all of them. My grandma Violet (my dad's dad's mother) was a Avon saleswomen. I remember that one of the local newspapers featured a story about her around some anniversary of her service with Avon. She lived in a block house in a place called Kanawha Two Mile. I remember going with my grandparents to visit her. Her house was full of neat things - many of them Avon trinkets. She used to give us Avon ornaments every Christmas. Before she died, she moved in with my grandparents. Since they were my next door neighbors, we spent a lot of time there. I remember that before she died, she told stories about her life that we recorded on cassette tapes. I wonder what ever happened to those tapes. And I wonder more if anyone still has a way to play them. I don't remember the exact date that she died, but I do remember that it was spring. I remember that all the family gathered at my grandparents house after the funeral and playing in the back yard with some of the cousins.
My grandma Lessie (my mom's dad's mom) was a stong and independent lady. When I was little she lived in a trailer that was across the way from my grandparent's house on the Pritt family farm. I don't remember much about her house, but I do remember that it had a distinct smell because she heated it with oil heaters. Most of my memories of Grandma Lessie were of the time she spent in Hodges Nursing Home on the West End of Charleston. I went to visit her with my grandparents. I remember that she'd often ask me to sing songs for her. I remember the mural on the wall outside her room had birds on it. And I remember that the lady down the hall used to yell a lot. She died on Christmas Day and was buried in the family cemetary on the family farm.
My Granny Mabel (my dad's mom's mom) is the one that I have the most memories of. She was a wonderful lady who knew just about everyone in Kanawha county (or at least her phone records would suggest she did - she loved to talk on the phone). She lived to the ripe old age of 101 and was young at heart until the day she died. I was closer to her than any of my other great grandmothers. I used to love it when she'd come to stay a few days with my grandmother (her youngest child) because I knew that there were always adventures in store. I remember being a very little child playing in the basement of my grandma's house while she and Granny Mabel strung and canned beans. I also remember learning to sing hymns - I truly believe that my Granny had memorized the alto part to every hymn ever written. And she knew the words to every verse. I remember that she would drape sheets over the kitchen table and climb under with me to play house or have a tea party. And when you consider that she was in her 70 and 80s when I was a child that makes it all the more special. She was able to start at the beginning of the year and in date order tell you the names and birthdays of all her children, grand children, great grand children and great-great grand children. And I don't know how the others felt, but she had a way of making me feel like the most special person in the world to her. The thing that always amazed me about Granny Mabel was her unwaivering faith in God. She outlived her husband, who died more decades before her, and 4 of her 7 children. And although she was sad about it, she never turned her back on God. She lived long enough that she got to see me get married and she was alive and well when Joshua entered the world. She died right before Thanksgiving in 2002 - while I was pregnant with Abigail. I have never been sicker in my life than I was the day of her funeral.
My final great grandmother (and my only great grandfather that I knew) was my mom's mom's parents. My great grandma's name was Geneva and she died today, June 23, 2009. I remember visiting her house which was just down the hill from ours and watching the interaction between her and my great Grandpa Howard. I remember the family gathering when my grandma's older sister Pasty would come in for visits from Texas. And the Blackshire family reunion was always a must attend event. It always included the horseshoe pitching contest and a series of games and relays for the kids. My cousin Lee and I use to practice the wheelbarrow race and the three leg race for weeks. And our practice often payed off. We loved to win. My grandpa had alzheimer's disease and when it was clear that Grandma Geneva needed help caring for him, they moved from their house on Tyler Mountain to a trailer on the Pritt farm and then into my grandparent's house. I watched as my great grandfather retreated to a time in the past and "forgot" who my grandmother was. I think it broke her heart. When he died they had been married for 60 years or so. That just doesn't happen anymore. A few weeks ago she suffered a stroke and never recovered. And today with her death it is the end of a generation in my family. I take comfort in the fact that I still have all four of my grandparents with me. And that my children, like me, know them and have been blessed with a relationship that most never have. Growing up I never realized what a special gift the opportunity for that relationship really is. I am so very thankful to have had it. From generation to generation - Amen.
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