Saturday, April 12, 2008
Mam-maw's Memories
Madilyn and I spent the night with Mammaw last night. This is Mom's mom. From bargain-shopping to prayer-warrioring (is that a word?), Mammaw has always been an inspiration in my life. I used to spend weeks at a time at her house in the summer when I was younger. It was about a four-and-a-half hour trip from Nashville, where I grew up.
Yesterday she was telling me some great stories ... family memories and just funny things. My grandmother writes memories down in journals, in cards she mails, and in the back of Bibles ... like the one I have sitting next to me. It's Mom's, and it has the story of her birth in the back. Mammaw recounts how Mom had black hair down her neck and enough on the top for a bow when she was born (I did too, and so did Madilyn!) and that she looked like her "Pop," and how he was so happy about that.
Mammaw had a difficult time physically after the birth, and didn't even know if she would live. She says she remembers hearing her mother cry out, "Lord, don't take her, but take me." After much prayer and a few weeks, she began to recover. It's amazing that she went on to have three more children after an ordeal like that!
My grandfather was enlisted in the army and got called early to join the war Roosevelt had declared two years before. Pappaw got an extension since Mammaw was pregnant. When Mom was just 6 weeks old, he had to rejoin the troops. He was stationed in Little Rock, Ark., so Mam-maw traveled by train with her baby to join him before he left for California where he would await his orders. He would be stationed in the South Pacific, where he worked as a medic. When in the Philippines, he encountered a direct attack. I remember him telling me how he told the Lord that if he got out alive, he would live his life preaching the Gospel. He certainly held up his end of the deal.
In the Bible, my grandmother wrote, "Men and women both were needed to work in the factories, making war material. People moved from place to place so they could work and make big money. Churches were filled praying for our soldiers. Granny Peters [my grandfather's mother] had five sons in the service at one time."
Thankfully, they all returned home safely. But my grandfather didn't get to come home until my mother was 3 years old. Her daddy was a stranger.
Two of those Peters brothers have passed now. One brother passed away on my wedding day in 2003, and my grandfather passed away two weeks after Madilyn was born, as I mentioned in a previous post.
What a legacy they left for our family, and what a blessing it is that my grandfather has recorded many of these memories.
I will pick up and post some more of what she's written here in the blog. Stay tuned ...
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!
Yesterday she was telling me some great stories ... family memories and just funny things. My grandmother writes memories down in journals, in cards she mails, and in the back of Bibles ... like the one I have sitting next to me. It's Mom's, and it has the story of her birth in the back. Mammaw recounts how Mom had black hair down her neck and enough on the top for a bow when she was born (I did too, and so did Madilyn!) and that she looked like her "Pop," and how he was so happy about that.
Mammaw had a difficult time physically after the birth, and didn't even know if she would live. She says she remembers hearing her mother cry out, "Lord, don't take her, but take me." After much prayer and a few weeks, she began to recover. It's amazing that she went on to have three more children after an ordeal like that!
My grandfather was enlisted in the army and got called early to join the war Roosevelt had declared two years before. Pappaw got an extension since Mammaw was pregnant. When Mom was just 6 weeks old, he had to rejoin the troops. He was stationed in Little Rock, Ark., so Mam-maw traveled by train with her baby to join him before he left for California where he would await his orders. He would be stationed in the South Pacific, where he worked as a medic. When in the Philippines, he encountered a direct attack. I remember him telling me how he told the Lord that if he got out alive, he would live his life preaching the Gospel. He certainly held up his end of the deal.
In the Bible, my grandmother wrote, "Men and women both were needed to work in the factories, making war material. People moved from place to place so they could work and make big money. Churches were filled praying for our soldiers. Granny Peters [my grandfather's mother] had five sons in the service at one time."
Thankfully, they all returned home safely. But my grandfather didn't get to come home until my mother was 3 years old. Her daddy was a stranger.
Two of those Peters brothers have passed now. One brother passed away on my wedding day in 2003, and my grandfather passed away two weeks after Madilyn was born, as I mentioned in a previous post.
What a legacy they left for our family, and what a blessing it is that my grandfather has recorded many of these memories.
I will pick up and post some more of what she's written here in the blog. Stay tuned ...
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!
# posted by 99 Blogger @ 1:01 PM 
