Beginning the Journey

After almost 9 years, I finally got the courage to start reading letters that my dad wrote to my mom while they were courting.  I've had them for nearly 9 years, in a suitcase, but just couldn't bring myself to start that journey of reading. 

I began with reading the letters they wrote before they ever met.  Hmmm - it kind of reminds me of "Sleepless in Seattle".  Background information is a must - and it is the stuff that movies are made of.

My paternal grandma - Gr. N - lived in the pandhandle of Oklahoma.  Hot wind, tumbleweeds, little rain, rolling pastures, constant dust, jack rabbits and sunflowers.  Not a land that is easy to make a living in! 

When my grandma N was 7 months pregnant with my dad, my grandpa was kicked in the stomach by a horse. He was hauling water in to their homestead for drinking, laundry and baths.  In a week, when the family and friends realized that he wasn't getting any better, they took him to a nearby city, where he died.  His spleen had ruptured and had become gangrenous. 

My 4'11" grandma, survived his death, gave birth to my dad 2 months later and proceeded to live as a widow with three children - ages 3, 2 and newborn. I do NOT know how she did it.   And my dad never got to meet his dad. 

For ten years, she managed the farm, cooked, cleaned, sewed, made quilts, went to church, grew a garden, raised chickens for eating and eggs - all by herself.  And we modern wives freak out when our washer or dishwasher goes on the blink!  They lived in a tiny dugout.

Now flash to Pennsylvania - land of absolute gorgeous mountains, hills, green everywhere, trees and a more decent climate.  My grandpa and grandma F lived there.  Gr. F couldn't find work there so for whatever reason (I mean - PENN to OK - whoa!) they moved to the pandhandle of OK.  They settled a mile or so from my other grandma who was still a widow.

Now we have the two families living close to each other.  I think the oldest of mom's sisters was already born, so they had 3 in their family.   My widow grandma had a family of 4. Two girls, a boy (my dad) and her.

Told you this was things movies are made of!  My grandma N was a midwife to all of the surrounding OK towns that she could get to with a horse and buggy.  When someone needed birthing help, grandma N came.  NOW my grandma F was pregnant with my mom.  Enter my OTHER grandma who became the midwife and brought my mom into this world.

So my two grandmas became very very close friends.  They got to live close to each other for a little over five years.  The grandparents from PA had another girl, giving them a family of 5.  My OK grandma was still a widow with her three kids.

Confused yet -????  :) :)

When my mom was five, grandpa F decided he'd had enough of the lonliness, wind, heat, dirt and tumbleweeds of OK and moved back to Pennsylvania.  From that day on, my two grandmothers wrote each other long newsy letters that they kept up until they became too old to write.  I believe it would have been around 50 years of correspondence - give or take.  Their letters always began, My dear friend.

Flash forward 25 years later to WWII.

That will be the next chapter of the background for my journey.  As the cop from Dragnet said, "Just the facts, mam, just the facts!"  Tune in for chapter two if you are intrigued or just bored or want more facts!  :)