Grandma Elva

Grandma was born in 1925, 

 the youngest of eleven children,

weighing in at a mere 2 1/2 pounds.

. 

90 years later, it's still a miracle

for a baby that size to survive.

Sadly, her mother did not.

A 2 1/2 lb preemie was too much to for a bereaved father with 10 other children to suddenly 

cope with at the time and so she was nurtured on the open door of a wood burning stove, 

by her aunt, nestled in a shoebox that was the rural version of an incubator back then.

She was eventually raised by that double aunt and uncle, 

(Her mother's sister had married her father's brother).

She loved poetry,

her work as a seamstress, 

mountain adventures,

Ireland

but most of all her family.

She had a twinkle in her eye and a joyful heart.

Jotham grew up two doors away and remembers stealing cookies from the cookie jar,

nights rides that ended with long talks at their back window, and so much love and laughter.

She outlived four husbands, two sets of parents, and 10 brothers and sisters.

I am sure there was much rejoicing in heaven when she arrived.

Can you imagine her joy at being able to meet her sweet mother for the first time?

It's hard to begrudge her leaving.

but I do... the granddaughter in-law, whom she served breakfast in bed to the first time we met, who washed load after load in her washer, and took over her house and garden one summer.  She was happiness and love wrapped up in one small package.

So along with the seven sons, 33 grandchildren, and 108 great-grand children,

and 3 great, great grandchildren and numerous in-laws of all sorts who loved her, we will quietly mourn our loss and miss her happy, twinkly eyes. 

 

photo credits: cousin Elizabeth Freeman