Great Great Grandpa David Went To School In A Dog Cart
I am so glad that we went to see Great Grandma
yesterday. Not only did seeing her reduce
my worry it also satisfied Emily and Ruth that she was OK.
Eric and I passed the 90 minute drive catching up on each
others lives. Thinking about it now I
am surprised and a little worried that we can live within 10 minutes of each
other, know each other well and yet know so little about each others daily
lives.
August is not the time people
normally make resolutions and I am going to make one. I will have coffee with each
of my children at least once every three weeks.
I do not want to miss out on their adulthood by being consumed by my
Grandchildren and my life. I realize
that this is an easy trap to fall into as a Grandparent. I love my children and I believe that a
mother I still have a great deal to offer them and for them to offer me.
Great Grandma was up and dressed when we arrived. She had been going through some boxes that
she was given from her older sister’s home.
There was one last box to go through so Emily, Ruth and I helped her
with this. Emily found a treasure in the
form of an old note pad that I remember always sitting beside the old black
dial phone at my Grandfather’s home.
And at the bottom of the box she found two rolls of
paper. Well she sat down and would have
spent the day drawing if it were not for going out to eat. Ruth found a square paper weight that she
was enthralled with. While the girls and I were
going through the box Mom took Eric into her bedroom and gave him two harmonicas,
one for him and the other for his brother Alexander. These harmonicas belonged to my Grandfather. I have a very faint memory of camping at Chesley Lake and Grandpa David taking out a harmonica in the
evening and playing.
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| A cabin at Chesley Lake Ontario CA not the one we stayed in but how I remember ours looking |
Once we were all back in the living room again Grandma told
Eric, Emily and Ruth a story about Grandpa David.
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| Grandpa David |
One day when Grandpa was a small boy he had a very difficult
day. One of those days where you cannot
live in your skin and so everything and everyone irritates you. Grandpa’s mother was worried and somewhat upset
with him and they had words. The next
morning when she went to get Grandpa David out of bed (Grandma Audrey starts to cry
here) he cannot move his body below the waist: infantile paralyzes. (Grandma Audrey recovers and quickly moves to the point of the story) To get to school Grandpa David used a Dog
Cart. In the summer his cart had wheels
and in the winter skis. Grandma Audrey knowing she has the girls interest describes what she knows of the carts and how how Grandpa David got around then.
Grandma Audrey went on to tell us how as a teenager Grandpa David
went to live at Sick Children’s Hospital for a number of years. That it at the hospital that he attended High School. The
treatment at that time for Infantile Paralyzes and Polio was too spent many
hours a day in an iron lung.
When
Grandpa D. came out of hospital he walked with one cane and one crutch and this is how I remember my Grandfather. A competent man who would not let a physical disability stop him from doing anything. Grandma Audrey ended her story by telling us about how he drove car.
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| Grandma Audrey as a little girl with her father Grandpa David |
All of us were captivated by Grandma’s retelling of her
father’s early life. I cannot tell
you how blessed we all are to have Great Grandma and that she is willing to bring to life her
father, my Grandfather, Eric’s Great Grandfather and the girl’s Great Great
Grandfather in her stories of him. This is how we live
forever. We do it in the stories that generations to come will tell about us. It is in how we will be remembered.
Grandma
Snyder
©2013- 2015 twosnydergirls
