My highschool friends

I am an introvert, and that means I had lots of friends, but wasn't one of those 'in-the-yearbook' kind of girls.

The Flowery One, (it doesn't help to enlarge the low res picture)

When I took a vacation in the early 2000s, I came to North Carolina (from Florida) to visit my old friend The Flowery One and her husband The Silent One.

The Flowery One and I had gone to school together back in St. Louis from 7th grade through 12th.  During those years we studied, learned about boys, played sports on teams together, dated boys, questioned everything grown-up, made out with boys, pushed boundaries sometimes, and giggled a lot.  I was even in The Flowery One's first wedding soon after high school. But in 2000, after almost 40 years apart, we again made contact because another student wanted to do a gathering of our graduating class via the internet.

Three graces come together (what? we don't look like that?)

Our other friend, The Brain, had responded to this other student that she wanted to get in touch with us, so we all made contact again.  I may have the details of this wrong, but basically we started writing emails regularly in 2000.

The Brain and I had also spent a year together in college as well as all through high school.  I had written back and forth, ("snail mail" it came to be called) with The Brain several times in my life, and always enjoyed hearing about her and her husband, The Tall One, and sharing whatever was going on in our lives, including kids.

The Brain and The Flowery One enjoying pictures and ??? as teens

My teenage friends, wearing the styles of the time, scarves, bangs and curls of hair coming toward the cheeks

The Brain, riding her scooter in 2012, having lived with MS for many years

The Flowery One several years ago, in NC

The Flowery One after treatment for cancer

The apartment complex for seniors in WA state, where The Flowery One and The Quiet One moved in 2011

The Flowery One and The Silent One, Halloween 2012

Our email let us see how many similar choices we'd made through the years, and we continued to share these common bonds. We all loved cats and had left the religion which was the sponsor of our high school.  We sent support whenever one of us went through a tough time, and we sure did continue to share our love of the silly, and cats, and humor, and Halloween, and laughs, and story telling, and creativity in lots of ways.

I've tried to keep a record of the emails we exchanged, in hopes of writing some kind of memoir of our lives.  But working with thousands of emails is very tedious, to say the very least.  You can't just turn them into computer savable documents unless you copy them out of the internet server, which I've done with many.  Most of them remain in the land of the web.

So if I guess at something, I can go looking for what one of us said back at that time.  But for purposes of these blogs, I may often just write from memory.  If something important happens though, I'll go cut and paste from the emails again!  (Unless I get enough comments saying that it's not a good idea, that is.)

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday this week.  Sorry it hasn't got a thing to do with Alan's picture idea.  But this is what I've been wanting to share for some time.

The Enlightened One (Part 2)

 

Panther and Felicia at The Enlightened One's home.  Later Panther came to let me care for her.

Medicine Wheel in The Enlightened One's back yard

I can't go into all the wonderful things that this woman did in her life, nor all the friends who came to visit and care for her in the last months of her life.  That would take another complete blog.  She spent more and more time writing her own journal, pulling sources from the internet, and sharing them with all of us.  She would always let me know whether or not she wanted a visit, but usually it was yes, when I called to ask if I could come over, or take her for an outing.

My time with her in her last year was such a blessing.

Quan Yin in the garden

Guru Satchidananda

We went to a spot on a nearby stream and made sculptures of rocks and leaves.

 We went out of town to a daytime women's singing concert produced by friends, and played in a river.

 

Amma, the Hugging Saint

She invited me for a Japanese tea ceremony in her garden.

We shared what we loved together, and we both took pictures.

The Enlightened One and her daughter share LOVE!

Then I went to CT to see my family, while she had more and more domestic needs, like meals, and medications, and care around the house.  A group of friends began to divide up the services that we could perform for her.

When I came home, I found that she needed a lot more care.  Her daughter was there more of the time, though she had a job and a dear husband who also took part in all of that was happening.

Visiting church for the last time - JOY

The Enlightened One on her porch

A picture I saw at The Enlightened One's memorial service

When The Enlightened One was ready to leave her body, she had great care from Hospice, as well as a group which especially helped with the transition. I believe they are called Transitions for the End of Life.

She left this earth on Sept. 13.  I sat with her for some of the time that day as she gradually left us.  Many friends came to say goodbye in person.

Her memorial service was held a couple of weeks later, at our church.  It was a great sharing of the friendships in her life, with a coming together of people who had known her, but not each other.  A FaceBook page had been started for all these new connections that had developed because of her influence on our lives.

 From the Ashram in VA came a picture of a double rainbow that probably occurred at the same time that she left her body.

Recently I spoke with another woman who said she just found out a friend has only a few months to live.  I made sure to tell her what a wonderful time I had as an "angel of transition" before The Enlightened One died, being part of the last year of her life, just doing what I could and learning so much from her.  It was truly uplifting.

The Enlightened One (Part One)

Memories from 2011.
I vaguely remember the first time she came to the Women's Spirituality Group at our church.  Very intelligent, knew lots about diverse topics, wanted to share, had some issues with health.

At the next time we met, we teased about how one of the women had just came back from a retreat in Myrtle Beach.  I remembered going to that retreat center in my past, and said I'd love to go again, did anyone else want to go?  The Enlightened One did, as well as several other women.  In the end three of us did take the 5 hour road trip in my then 15 year old Toyota, to Myrtle Beach and stayed several days in February 2011.

Each of us had been there before and had very diverse but spiritual-growth kinds of experiences.  And the same thing happened with this visit.   I'll respect each of our own paths and leave it at that.

After that trip, I tried to have more social interactions with The Enlightened One, but I didn't pick up on her transportation limitations right away, of  living on the side of a mountain about 2 miles from the center of the town of Black Mountain and having no car.  Her daughter was taking her places, she said, but she lived a ways away.

After a while she did ask for rides to various doctor appointments.  But she continued to say she was walking to the grocery store and library herself.  As I was the chairperson (at that time) of our church committee that looked after the needs of people who were sick, I kept up with her, as well as several other folks dealing with illness.  She was concerned about my saying we were limited in how to help people.

The Enlightened One brought a friend to train the committee at the church in how to share caring for other members who were sick.   During that summer she looked after her garden and mowed the grass on her hilly lot.  (This was more than I could do!)  Other folks at the church also had close relationships with her, and were visiting frequently.

The second part of this story will be posted tomorrow.

And I got home to...

Aug. 31, 2011 Wed.
(From email to The Brain and The Flowery One)
 

<Just threw out the melted mess of last of my ice cream.

I wondered why that beer I drank half of last night wasn't cold.

<The refrigerator/freezer have bit the dust.

So that meant ferrying my foodstuffs to a friend's freezer in her basement, and talking with my landlady about a new refrigerator.  That was really wonderful, and after various measurings, she went and ordered one, to be delivered on Sun.  

Sept. 1 THurs

<In the middle of the night I realized the stove would also have to be dragged out of the kitchen, cause the walk area is too small to get the refrig. through.  So now I'm thinking of how to move most everything portable into the living/dining room. 

<Wonder what happened to coming home to my old life?  It's sure changed!

Fri Sept 2

>I've had the IBS hit again, and missed the bathroom by about a minute.  Drat.  Had to park, go in library, get the key to restroom, and then clean up my mess.  So I definitely got Imodium, and took a small dose.  Usually I don't have another episode after one when I'm out, but I'm planning to eat the one person pizza I got from grocery also.  I can cook it before it goes bad, from being frozen to being in my "cooler" freezer, which is a steady 55 degrees. 

 <I did go by The Enlightened One's cause I hadn't seen her since I got home.  There were a bunch of her ashram friends from VA visiting, as well as  two of my local friends.  Glad to see each of them, as well as meet the other 3.  They all knew much more about Hindu gods and goddesses than I ever have.

Sat. Sept 3

>Well, I sold a bunch today, and the others did too.  I'm so happy!   
(NOTE:This is the Tailgate Market every Sat. morning during the summer in Black Mountain.  I had not sold any pottery the 2 weeks I was gone)

<I'm home, enjoying reading, thinking of how I'm going out for ice cream later on, but I just had yogurt.

<Flowery One, if I'm lactose intolerant, wouldn't it make me have the runs any time I eat it?  I only get them in spurts (sorry for the pun) and then have days like this one, without going at all.  IBS is like that.

<I may go to the apple festival tomorrow, if the fridge is installed without taking up most of the day.  I want to go to the church service about spirituality in nature...should be right up my alley!

Sun. Sept 4

>I had been trying to write to L. about my feelings, but started crying cause I couldn't think of a word.  It is worse when I'm feeling feelings!  You know how that happens I'm sure.  Stress of feeling emotional makes me more emotional.  So the tears just come.

<Anyway, I wanted the [women's] group to be more peaceful, and have a process that is comfortable and positive, and there's a word with a "c" that I still don't know what it is.

<So, that's where I am today.  Everyone in the group is trying to understand me, and me too.  Whether it's The Enlightened One's end of life care needs, or spending 10 days with travels...or having to get a new refrigerator...duh...I'm just a mess.

Sun Sept 4

<The new refrig is in place, and happily freezing my trays of ice very nice and fast.  But when they pulled the old one out, you should have seen the floor under it!  It was awful. And i had just a few minutes to scrape it up (with a trowel) and then scrub it down with vinegar, hot water and huge towels.  I wasn't too happy about the furry greasy wet mess that was left over from the old frig leaking for months/years? as well as the dog hairs, and probably cat fur too...oh my it was awful.

<So did I mention how awful that mess was?  Awful!

<And then I went over to D.'s and picked up my freezer full of food, and now it's in the new freezer.

<Whoopee.

<I ate Wendy's on the way home, then fell asleep.

<I think was the second nap today...

Mon. Sept 5
From The Flowery One (she emailed me after going to the races with relatives)
>I had a wonderful day. The Silent One [her husband] enjoyed having his day to himself doing whatever he wanted. The tenants were quiet. Only one locked herself out and there were just a couple that were mad at each other over something. And The Silent One got pizza brought home to him from leftovers, so he was happy. I didn't get home until 8:30! I went right to bed and right to sleep after only watching TV to unwind for a few minutes.
 
>Barb, yuck on under your old refrigerator! That couldn't have been healthy to have spores from the mold floating in the air, not with your COPD especially! That was a blessing that the old refrigerator died so you could find that out and get it cleaned up and no more yuck in the air! How wonderful to have a brand new refrigerator too!

"We have a spiritual practice of thinking of a fire hydrant as a saint - it's standing there waiting to be of service. It's a way to start reframing our relation to all the everyday things around us.  Frederic Brussat, 100 Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive

After Irene passed

August, 2011.  Simsbury, CT

The internet service at The Consultant's house was not consistent, and with lots of little kids around, we weren't watching much of national news and weather.  But I'd been aware of Hurricane Irene as I drove north, and she'd hit the Outer Banks of NC on Aug 27th. 

Then the next day Irene plowed through Brooklyn, and started flooding all the rivers and low lying areas up into New England.

Many places had high winds and electric power outages.  That's what happened in West Simsbury, CT.

The only source of information, besides cell phones with limited batteries.

The power was out, it was daylight on the 28th, and the children were used to being entertained with TV's or computers.

So it was a challenge for the three adults in the house.  The Care Giver used her cell phone to talk or text other friends and relatives, trying to find an open Duncan Donuts, since we couldn't even make coffee.  Our crank powered radio had lots of options, but the weather reports didn't really say much that we wanted to hear.  The storm had passed just about dawn, when the power went out.  Some roads were flooded.  The thing that happens in these situations is that you never know how long it's going to last.  In this case, many people had a week without power, but we were lucky.

The Consultant after a couple of hours of no electrical power

By dusk, we decided to drive out and look around, finding very few places open due to no electricity almost everywhere.  One gas station looked open, I think, and by going near the airport we actually found a Duncan Donuts to have some bagels for supper.

We didn't really care what we looked like, since most of the mirrors at home didn't have power to see ourselves.

We went to bed pretty early that night.  And when we started hearing about the flooding in VT and NH, it seemed pretty surprising.  Our flooding had been such that a few streets were closed, but nothing like they had.

On Aug 29 I wrote to my friends:
<Yep, you were right about no electricity here...22 hours of it.

Not so bad except for 3 little girls who are used to being electronically entertained constantly.

Internet is low, so this is just to let you know I'm getting on the road again this morning.

<Sun is shining, and we're all hoping any flooding won't affect I-81, which I'll be on for the next day or 2.

<We didn't have any bad storm here, and only little bits of trees blew around.

<Thanks for your bubble of protection, which I know helped mine.

 

Next email, Aug 30, 9:40 am

<Hi girls...

<I'm having breakfast in bed (muffin and coffee- the free breakfast) in a motel (same one).  Yum.  Will get a shower and hit the road next.

<Just wanted to say how great it feels to be going home.  Even taking 2 days to travel the 850 miles is a good thing, for me to get used to being in a different place.

<The good ole irritable bowel syndrome roared it's ugly head again yesterday as I set out on the road.  It may be triggered just by the vibration of the car on the road.  Cause the minute I stop, watch out.  I've got about 1 minute to hit the toilet!  Made it just barely both times.  And then, whow, somehow that was all for yesterday!  I'm soooo grateful that the rest of the day, even with hourly stops just in case, that I didn't have any more attacks.

<Beautiful traveling weather.

<I may have said something yesterday about the towns that don't have elec.  I quickly learned that stopping at exits out in the rural areas was a mistake.  The weather channel/or radio said it could be next Mon till some will get elec, but towns will get it by Fri.  That was probably NJ or NY area.

<Now I've gone through Maryland, PA, and West Virginia...just barely touching some of them.

<There's no more rain forecast now. 80's for today all the way home.

I decided before leaving CT to skip going to DC.  Many people had evacuated the coast, and were probably jamming up the motels.  So it was unlikely that I could find one so that I could spend a day in museums.  That's got to wait for another trip. 

When I drove through cities on my way south, many exits were closed due to flooding of the streets under the interstate.  I was pretty naive about how hurricanes affected inland areas.  I kept feeling surprised that the storm had affected so many areas.  No electricity and flooding still from a storm that passed 2 days ago.  Later I found that northern New England had many more of these problems that lasted weeks.

My family has finally (a year later) stopped teasing me about how I come to town and bring storms. Maybe.

Goddesses aren't that big a secret

Goddesses are alive and well, and living right under our noses.  These sweet feminine forces form the foundations of my inspirations, healing, meditation, and social interactions.

If you want to know more about goddesses, here's a great publication.

Goddess Pages

Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion

I was browsing happily through various articles and suddenly noticed 3 poems by my friend Annelinde Metzner.  I love her poems, and she leads 2 choirs of which I'm a member.  (I call her Linda, like many of her friends do). And she lives within walking distance in Black Mountain, NC.

She sent that meditation which I posted yesterday, talking about asking a hurricane to behave itself.   And her blog is also one which I follow (look to the right column to see many blog links which I read regularly)

Kuddos to a dear and talented woman, who is facing a procedure to help with heart flutters in 2 weeks.  I'm already sending her healing energies in hopes this will stop all of the problems she's been having.

Irene visits

Now we return to the story of my 69th year.

Two granddaughters enjoy breakfast and the bunny out in the yard

Following my loose-tongued dinner on the 23rd, Grandma and Grandpa G went back to their own home, while I retired to the guest corner in the basement playroom.

(from my email to The Flowery One, Aug 24, 2011)
<I gave away a bunch of vases, plates, and the best pitcher I'd made...the small red one.   It was fun to see the girls trying to decide which of the little vases would be theirs...since there were 5 of them, and only 3 girls.  I think Grandma finally took one, and The Care Giver another, and they settled.  I was happy Grandma got a platter and a big vase, since they are so nice to me and of course to the whole family.

<I'm going to go try to find the 2 houses I lived in when we lived here in the mid-late 60s.  I know one street, but don't remember the other one...just vaguely where it is.

Small 3 bedroom house where I lived with husband and my 2 oldest boys, Thompsonville, CT 1965-68

Three bedroom house we lived in 68-69, Windsor CT

I really hadn't paid much attention to hurricanes since moving to the mountains.

My next email to my friend says:
<Everyone here is thinking of preparing for the huricane...which is weird.  I keep saying, be prepared, don't panic.  But the truth is being inland as far as we are, it will just give the same winds and rain that will probably be felt in Black Mountain, just a day later.  Should be here by Monday.

<It is due to hit the outer banks tomorrow morning..at least the last I heard.  I haven't checked this morning yet. 

<Lots of east coast (New Jersey, New York) islands have been given warnings to get them to do something to prepare, since they haven't had to prepare before, or maybe just for years.  NY city may have some flooding, if there's a direct hit...because it's also due to be at the same time as a new moon high tide...they're guessing.

<Since no hurricane has hit the uS for at least 4 years, the news/weather reports can't do anything before things happen besides talk about it...and they really don't know anything yet.  Forecasts have a margin of error of about 150 miles either side of the track they think it will take...but of course the closer it gets in time, the more likely they will know which way it may go.  But it is still a storm that doesn't always follow the forecasts.

<So I've posted a meditation at the bottom here, that Linda sent to me.  Hope it helps along with your energies, which are definitely appreciated.

~   Meditation on Hurricane Irene
~ ~     Visualize the storm becoming less and less intense.
~ ~ ~ See the eyewall of the storm beginning to dissipate and become less defined.
~ ~ ~ See the category rating of the storm lowering to a 1.
~ ~ ~ As you look at images of the storm visualize the tightly packed cloud formations loosening and see clear spots appear within the formation.
~ ~ ~ Send love to Gaia so that “whatever this storm is meant to accomplish for Earth” it does so in the gentlest way possible.
~ ~ ~ Give thanks for the opportunity to be of service, and bear witness to the most remarkable time in the history of our planet.

Arriving at The Consultant's Home

I came into a small NY town right after a huge wind event

I got pretty turned around from New Jersey onward.  Finding the correct lane, the right thru-way, or whatever they were called, I finally got off one of them in a nice sounding town.  Pleasantville, I think, reminding me of a movie.  I expected perfection and black and white scenes.  I'd just dodged a rain storm, which didn't help me glance from mapquest to road signs and get across enough lanes, this is a GPS-free car.

I drank a coke at MacDonalds, then looked for the road signs that would take me back where I wanted to go.  There were no highway signs anywhere in this town.  Streets had names, but nothing to designate the turnpike I'd just left.  So I wandered in my car, avoiding wires hanging in the street, and saw all the neighbors looking at this huge tree. At least this house didn't seem to have much damage.  Eventually I got on the right road to an entrance to the thru-way and made it to CT.

My son, The Consultant moved to CT a couple of years ago.  He is married with three daughters.

The Consultant and wife, The Care Giver in her wedding portrait

playground behind the house

The Care Giver is a lovely wife and mother

The Care Giver with her mother, Grandma, and her husband, Grandpa G.

I got there in time for a birthday dinner, which I shared with Grandma, The Care Giver's mother, who's birthday is 5 days after mine.  So my 69th was shared with her 72nd.  That was fine!

It was great fun, and I drank a bit too much wine probably.  (I'm learning that I tell all kinds of interesting stories once I've done that...and I avoid it now.  At least the kids had left the room by then.)

The 3 princesses, from left The Bunny, The Dancer, and The Actress

Please remember, in years to come, that these nick names are just temporary and don't have much meaning in reflection upon the children's personalities.

Trip 2011 August, first night

More email notes tell me about my first night on the road, on the way to Connecticut for my 69th birthday.

I don't know about you, but once I find a reasonable motel, I try to use it again.
The trip was planned loosely that I would drive home a different route, and stay near DC, then spend a day looking at museums that hadn't even been built the last time I got to go to DC.  I was giving myself some art exposure as a birthday present.  It didn't work out that way.


<Saturday, August 20, 2011 8:33 PM
<Hi ladies...
<Yeah!  The motel where I'm staying, can't remember which chain it is, has Wi Fi.  Oh, it's Super 8.  Very reasonable! 

<Driving has been nice and easy today.  Didn't see any accidents.  Did have to stop with several personal "near accidents "from IBS almost hourly.  I'm so upset that this is happening, where I take exits and rush to the first bathroom holding it...barely.  I just don't like taking the over the counter stuff that stops it, cause then for days I won't go at all.  But I probably will go buy some in the morning so I don't have this all day tomorrw too.

<I will be lying down soon for the night.  It's kind of hard to believe I'm actually north of DC, though a ways west of it.  Oh, I'm in Winchester, VA.  It's been so beautiful, the Virginia countryside.  I'm really enjoying it.

Next day was the fun drive through  VA, West VA, Maryland, PA, NJ, NY and CT - yes 7 states!

I hit stormy weather at one crucial point where I ended up getting off the highway and getting a bit lost...see tomorrow's posting!

Just before my 69th

Have just started my yoga and meditation routine again...that half hour in the morning is amazing that it changes my attitude so much.  I need it.  It's like water or air.  How come I let myself slip away from it for so long?  Duh!

I write emails daily to two dear old friends, who I'll call The Brain and The Flowery One.  So I've got emails that I've sent, and they've replied back.  Much of my life is recorded through these dates, though it's a bit of a strange format.  But it's a great resource when writing a book.



<Friday, August 19, 2011 4:19 PM  (NOTE: I turned 69 on Aug 23, 2011)
<TO: The Flowery One and The Brain

<Oh, that's such a lovely complex...and your patio (even without all the plants) is also very nice.  I didnt' realize your fence just was waist high, so you've got view of sky too.  Nice. 
(NOTE: I'm responding here to a picture of The Flowery One's patio picture.  Also I tend to not correct my misspellings while I'm first waking up in the morning, so the more typos there are, the earlier I was writing.)

The Flowery One's patio

<I've done some errands and bought some ginger ale for The Enlightened One and myself...she's talking with the Hospice nurse and says she's eating a little bit for each meal.  But she is tired a lot, so I just gave her a hug and said I'd see her in 10 days.  
(NOTE: My friend, The Enlightened One was dying of cancer, and had already started having Hospice visits.  I hated to be away to visit my family, but didn't see that things would change rapidly [hindsight is 20-20])

<My dear old IBS is rearing its ugly head, as I thought would happen tomorrow.  nah, it couldn't wait.  So Iv'e bveen creative at finding bathrooms while doing my errands.
(NOTE: This writer does have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which causes all kinds of problems in travelling.  Later in this year I will finally have some good medications that allow me to go anywhere, oops pardon the pun, I mean they would allow me to travel!!!)

<I loaded the crate of pottery that I'm offering to my son, The Consultant's family...hope I don't have to bring it all back.  Well, maybe some would be ok.  But I sure don't need it all collecting dust.  I'd rather my grands have it already.

<So the laundry is done.  I bought 2 new bras, cause there are only 2 that fit still (I know,  Flowery One...you don't have to deal with that any more...lucky you.)  The Enlightened One offered me all of hers, but they wouldn't go around my big old tubby form, she's a little bit of a thing.
(NOTE: The Flowery One is a breast cancer survivor!)

<Anyway, I've been washing one out every night, having only 2 at this point that fit, and decided that was just not the way I'd be welcome in a family bathroom!

<I'm going to put my feet up, then take the ice cream cake to the pot luck at 6:30.  Will pack after that.

NOTE: the above email had deleted a few items.  Other than those, it's pretty much the way it was written.   I won't copy emails verbatim, because that would be pretty tedious.  But I wanted you to have a feeling for my way I'll be retrieving events that I've recorded in this way.  The condition IBS is one that is seldom brought up in conversations, however many people suffer from it also, so I'm letting you know about my situation here, especially since it dictated some of my decisions along this trip.

Grandma Miller moved a few times

Though she had been born in Hillsboro, Texas, she made her home in San Antonio.  She raised her 4 daughters, and probably her grandchildren as well.

My mother's "grandma" is Eugenia Miller, here with my mother, Mataley (age 5) and 2 of her play mates in San Antonio.

I think of their household.  Eugenia and her husband, Charles Mueller (changed to Miller probably when he arrived in America) and their 4 daughters, living in San Antonio, Texas by 1922.  But they had certainly done a little relocating in the years since their marriage in October, 1896 (in Hillsboro, TX).

Charles probably had a schedule of being out of town for long stretches of time as a conductor on the railway.  He came originally from Mecklenberg, Schwerin, Germany.  I don't have the documents that tell when he arrived in the US, but he apparently was still young and landed with either parents or a brother.  And of course I don't know if he was always a conductor.

When the picture was taken in 1922, the Miller daughters were:
Mozelle Booth Miller, (my grandmom) born 1897 Hillsboro, TX. married first in 1915 in San Antonio.
Rowena Eugenia Miller) born 1900 in Hillsboro, TX, (whose first child was born in 1930 in San Antonio, TX, second child born 1939.)
So after these two babies were born in the Booth family town of Hillsboro, if not the actual household, then there were two more born in different towns.
Dorothy Dain Miller, born 1903 Houston, TX (married late, no children)
Margaret Etha Miller, born 1909 in Smithfield, TX, never married, no children.

My mother came along in 1917, in San Antonio TX, and her father died in1919. then she had a step father from 1924 to __________ when he died.  So when this picture was taken, she and her mother were probably living with her grandma.

I looked up Hillsboro, TX, and it's south of Dallas.  Smithfield is a bit southeast of Austin, which is northeast of San Antonio.  There's a lot of distance between all these locations, which must have been determined by Charles' work needs.

Sometime between 1909 in Smithfield and 1922 when the above picture was taken, the Millers moved to San Antonio.  Wait, there's also Mozelle's marriage in 1915 in San Antonio, so they were probably already there at that time.  Isn't this like doing research just by looking at dates and places?

My mother remembered living with her grandmother, and said she spent a lot of time with her "Aunt Margaret" who was just  8 when my mother was born.  So she was a teenager when this picture was taken.  Guess who got to baby sit!

Note to myself, look up date of step grand-dad Munhall's death.

San Antonio house

Once a good idea is born, it should be fed and nurtured.  How about more 69 year olds in my family tree?

Maybe go back another 69 years, beyond Eugenia Almetta Booth Miller's, my great grandmother's birth 69 years before mine.  The next generation back would have been born in 1804. Perhaps still alive during the Civil War.  Next would be someone born in 1735.  That person would have gone through the Revolutionary War, if they were in America at the time, and lived that long.

I do fortunately have documents copied from the Rogers Family Bible which my grandfather typed by  hand as he copied them.  He made 4 carbons, and gave one to my father.  But those records are of my father's family.  So far I've been looking at just my mother's family.

Look at what a neat tie these people's lives have together...some of whom lived 69 years, and what that year of achievement meant, not to mention all the rest of their interesting lives.  And even just having been born 69 years before me, then 69 years before that person...jumping back through our history.

I believe I visited Eugenia Booth Miller's house in the 40's when going from Houston to San Antonio to see my grandmother, Mozelle Booth Miller, who I think lived here herself.  I missed ever meeting Eugenia "Grandma" but I understood that she mostly raised my mother since Mozelle was widowed twice while very young.

I remember arriving in San Antonio at night, and the streets had an interesting drainage system, many of which were flooded.  The fun I remember was driving over humps at each intersection, which sent me bouncing (on the back seat) in a moment of weightlessness.  I giggled, and of course my mother harrumphed, which was her usual comment about my father's driving.  But I do remember that ride as being as good as many an amusement park ride later on.  I also remember later during the day, driving right through several inches of water, over some dam or bridge which was flooded as much of San Antonio was at that time.

If not Grandmommy Mozelle, one of the other daughters (Dorothy Dain Miller or Margaret Etha Miller) might have been living in this home still.  Margaret never married so easily could have stayed in the homestead.  Rowena (the 4th sister) had married a man named Rodgers many years before my mother also married a Rogers.  Since it was spelled differently, everyone assumed there was no relationship.  But I've never tried to trace it.  If you go far enough back, spelling got pretty iffy.

I don't remember my great-grandfather, Charles Herman Miller, who may have been still alive when I was born. I believe he had been a conductor on the railroad.  I did find it strange that my grandmother would never travel by train, but only took airplanes or drove to visit people.  I wonder if he had an train accident or told her something that kept her away from trains.  I personally loved travelling by train as a young girl with my mother from St. Louis to go visit my grandmother and her family in San Antonio.

A map of "The Santa Fé Route" and subsidiary lines, as published in an 1891 issue of the Grain Dealers and Shippers Gazetteer.

More ancestors who were Booths

So this book is becoming much bigger!  Whow.  And I thought I wouldn't have much to say.
Here's more about my great grandmother, Eugenia Almetta Booth Miller.

Booth history, hand written by unknown relative, perhaps my Great Aunt Margaret Miller.  (There is a better copy than this in my files, but this gives you an idea how data used to be saved.  I find several interesting bits of information in it.

The man who shot Richard R. Booth in 1879 was Richard (Dilk) Springfield.  I wonder why there are parentheses around Dilk. I also wonder whether he was then tried for this murder, or if he was already on trial for another murder.

And Richard's first wife died the same day she gave birth to her second son, who lived just 4 months himself.  So many women died with complications from childbirth.

Also interesting is that one of the brothers of Eugenia Almeda Booth (my great-grandmother) was named Edwin Whitty Booth, which is one of the names of a famous actor in the Booth family from which John Wilkes hailed.  Edwin and John Wilkes were 2 of 3 illegitimate sons of Junius Booth, who had 9 siblings.

So there might have been some cousins at that point.  Edwin Whitty Booth lived until 1924, so I dare say he would have known of any connection to the theatrical Booths.  I haven't ever noticed his name before, so that's another line of cousins I could chase when I have time.

Named after Eugenia Booth Miller

I was given Booth (when being named after my great grandmother, her maiden name) as my middle name.  A second cousin had already been named Patricia Eugenia, so my parents thought that they should avoid too many similarities.  Her last name was Rodgers, while mine was Rogers.  Lots of similarity already there.

There was a long line of famous Booths in my family, that apparently my mother and father  were proud of in 1942 Dallas, Texas.  They were attorneys and judges in early Texas.  They weren't related (that I could ever discern) to John Wilkes Booth from post-Civil War infamy.

However, when we moved to St. Louis when I was 8, I found out that all the "Yankees" knew about him and I preferred to not tell anyone my middle name and explain all about how we weren't related, which I had quickly asked my parents.  How would you like to be a pre-teen named after an assassin?  It kind of put a damper on fun on the playground for a while!

Eugenia was born after her father, RIchard R. Booth, had remarried, when his first wife had died and he had a 2 year old son.
Eugenia had also been her mother's name, Eugenia Almetta (or Almeda) Whitty Booth.
Richard R. Booth, my great-grandmother's father died when she was 6 years old.  He was shot by a person he was prosecuting in Hempstead, Texas.
Richard R. Booth, incidentally, was the son of Judge William Lewis Booth, who did fight for the Confederacy as a Colonel.

Eugenia, as I noted elsewhere, was a matriarch in my mother's family, raising both her own 4 daughters, and my mother as well.  Her husband was a conductor for the railroad.

The Booth home in Hillsboro, Texas.  I found this picture on Ancestors.com

Eugenia Booth Miller, 69 years before me

Since there are more things known about the past than the future, let's consider my ancestors relative to 69 years, (the magic number of my age that this blog is memorializing.)

That's why time traveler stories touch only briefly on a future, and a lot of past times.  So if I look back to an ancestor that would have been 69 in 1942 (the year I was born) ...they would have been born in 1873.  Mmm, I dare say I can look on the good old family tree and find someone.  It doesn't matter if they didn't actually live to 69, because it's the magical birthday I'm tracking this time.  (In the future I'll check and see how many ancestors did make it to the year of their 69th birthday)

Oh my goodness...the woman I was named after was born Jan 30, 1873.  She was my great-grandmom, Eugenia Almetta (Almeda) Booth Miller, and she died Jan 1, 1936. She raised my mom and my grandmom, and had married Charles Mueller (Miller) October 28,1896, an immigrant from Germany.  They had 4 daughters, including my grandmother, Mozelle Booth Miller.  I was named Barbara Booth, rather than Eugenia.

I'm going to share this great news (well, only if you put a parameter on history that says, look at it this way...) on Sepia Saturday this week.  See what other folks are sharing here.
http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2013/01/sepia-saturday-158-5-january-2013.html

The 69th Year of my descendents

I decided the year in which I was 69 years old would be interesting to write about.

But in case there isn't enough to say, I might consider some other years, or maybe other authors of similar topic.

What if one of the children born this year, when reaching 69 years of life, decides that it's time to write about that year of her/his life?  (I don't have any grand nephews or nieces born in the last year, so it wouldn't be a relative probably.)

That would be in...let's see...not 2111, for that would be 100 years from when I turned 69.
Oh dear, not having a calculator...and not knowing how to use a slide rule (any more, I probably did when I was around 18)...the long subtraction way means...ah, 2080.

So these would be descendents of my friends and neighbors.  And I won't be around to read about their lives.  Wonder how different they might be...

Thinking of the future.

Do you have a word you chose to focus upon for this year?  I did.