Heirloom story

I'm teaching a class this morning about Genealogy and Family History (do you know the difference? Answers here) and mentioned the importance of family heirlooms. Here is a photo of a photo of my grandmother, Ethel Frances Gilchrest Grant, at age 18. As a homemaker, she would wear a housedress during the day to do her cleaning, cooking, etc. Then right before her husband arrived home for dinner she would change into a new (clean) housedress. She made two quilt squares using fabric scrapes from her housedresses, but they never became a quilt. I put these wonderful heirlooms into hoops to preserve them and the story of her life as a conscientious homemaker.

[Below is a photo of "Grammie Grant" as I knew her, in the early 1960s]

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Tribute from her son, Donald: "My mother was a very easy-going person, always finding the good side of people. I never heard her say anything bad about anybody. She would say, "if you can't say something nice about a person don't say anything." She loved people and was always a pleasure to be with. She was a good mother to all us kids and did most of the bringing up of us alone because Dad worked nights--4 to midnight--for over 20 years. She was a good-looking lady and a nice soprano singer. She sang in the church choir and taught Sunday School. She also was quite a poet and wrote a lot of poems and read them over the radio station. She played the piano and sang at home practicing for church. I remember my dog would howl every time she sang; she had a very strong high voice and when she hit the high notes that dog would go nuts! I'd say, "Ma, he can't stand your singing!" and she'd say, "well then, put him out!"
She was a great mother and I wish she could have lived longer so I could better repay her for what she did for me. She never got to go anywhere or do anything because my father was either working or hunting or fishing and the lack of money and us kids kept her tied close to home. She was a very religious lady and got a lot of comfort and pleasure from her church. Your mom lived with my parents for a year before we got married and for the two years that I was in the service in Germany. They were very good friends. I remember one day I was giving Annie heck about something and my mother grabbed me and said, "Now you be good to that girl and don't you hurt her!" So from then on I was out-voted.