Dear Dorothy, Thanks so much for your warm and understanding message. Yes, your husband Charles and I have continued to exchange messages over the years regarding his sister and his connection with Niagara Falls. But to hear from you like this, pleases me so much. Please try to write down your own memories and transcribe your letters regarding your trips across the country with your grandmother. Also describe what those old black and white pictures were all about. I know that you have children and grandchildren and from my point of view, you're the only one who can tell that particular story of their family history. Also include the selling of your grandmother's house while she was in Colorado. You may still ache over it, but it's family history that you need to write down. vee ----- Original Message ----- From: "matheson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 12:31 AM Subject: RE: [FOLKS] I'm in a slump > Please continue to write your stories. My husband is the one with the > connection to the list. But I read every message you send to the list. > Most of them touch my heart. The ones of the trips across the county made > me recall how lucky I was to take two trips across the country with my > Grandmother. Texas to Colorado when I was 11. And Texas to Michigan when I > was 15. My mother kept the letters I wrote from that time and I need to > take them out and read them again. I also need to get the black and white > photographs out and do a bit of journaling with them. > > My goodness my Grandmother was a courageous lady to take a child and travel > across the county. This was in the 60's and I am sure that most widow > ladies would not have done this. > To top the story off my parents sold my grandmother's house while she was > gone to Colorado and she had to move into a much smaller house in town > within two weeks of returning from the trip. > > Thanks for your stories making my memories vivid. > > Dorothy > >

I have been looking at a lot of old family pictures that my Mother gave me last year. The pictures are of my father and mother before they met each other. My father was over seas in WWII and there are a surprising number of picture of him in New Zealand. My Grandmother Terry (his mother) kept them. When the house she lived in was sold so she could go into the nursing home the Aunts and my Mother sorted the pictures Grandma Terry had and My Mother has passed them to me. Of interest to this group is that both of my parents are from Michigan and even met there. My Mother says she has only been to the Falls when they were frozen. My Mother was in the Nurse Cadet Corp. She finished Nursing School a year after WWII ended and actually my father was home and they dated during her last year in school. My Mother's parents moved to the Valley of Texas to grow Oranges during WWII and that is another story of gas rationing and driving for so very many miles with all the furniture on a big truck and all the family in a small car with the animals too at 35 miles per hour till they got to Texas then they were able to drive faster. My Mother rode the bus back to Michigan to go to Nursing School. Both sides of my family are interesting to me. So I feel lucky to have so many memories of them and pictures too. Dorothy