Dorothy : God's Gift

I'm doing pretty good at this challenge and I'm only a bit behind. I've been putting off writing this one. Mostly, I have a lot to say - or I don't know what to say. How do you begin to write about a woman you greatly misunderstood in life but came to understand in death?

Dorothy is a Greek name and it means God's Gift. Click your heels? No, no - she was my grandmother.

Grandma was born in June 1917 and had an older brother, Bob. Her father was HJ and her mother Isabel. During the 1929 crash the family continued to do well due to HJ's business skills but do not mistake that she was very much a child of the depression.

They went to Europe often. Grandma had a run in with the Gestapo. My father says it didn't happen, my Aunt Linda says it did.

After she died I was able to read her diary. She received a diamond ring for her HS graduation. She graduated Ohio Wesleyan. Her mother died during her college years. She married my grandfather after college and they settled in her native Cleveland Heights. Grandma was a Librarian and kept the schools plants. She carted them home each school break to care for them.

As a child, I thought she was a hoarder. It was her depression upbringing coming into view. Bread bags were lunch bags, stocking held onions, etc.

Grandma loved arts : Ballet, Orchestra, Opera, Museums, etc. She adored the Nutcracker, something that makes me miss her more around Christmas.

She hated pictures, I'm assuming because she literally buried every member of her family (and in-laws) over her life. All she had left was the family she created - children and grandchildren.

We all miss her, I wish I would have known her better but she died a few days after my 14th birthday in 1999.

Dorothy, Isabel, and HJ.

Aunt Edith

I have a love/hate relationship with the next relative I want to share a bit about.

Edith Evans was the older sister of my maternal grandmother. She married her husband, James Sullivan, at age 16. Her daughters were Anna Mae & Lois.

When Edith’s mother, Mary died, my grandmother was 12 years old and lacked any other female figures. Her father and brothers did their best to raise her.

Growing up, I was told Edith was “cruel”, “nasty”, “unkind”, and “not just to your grandmother Marge but to her own children, poor Anna Mae “. It remains unknown to me if she was physically, mentally, emotionally, or all of the above abusive towards the girls. 

Edith died in 1962 following a stroke she suffered some time prior.

They don't throw things away.

I received a neat but also humorous email from my Dad the other day ..... take it away Dad!

I found this interesting. In the wedding photo, my folks are reading a Western Union Telegram. In times past these were used for the most important communications. In the second picture is what I believe the actual telegram. Note the similarities. This was from Sam Mora & his wife Marion from a cabin? in far off Canada. Sam & Marion are buried several graves down from Henry & Isabel at Lakeview. Some things never get thrown away in this family.

John T.

Alliance City Cemetery.

Born in Wales in 1833.

Cousin Skinner

Skinner aka Patrick Joseph Logan was my Great-Great-Uncle.

I don't know much about him except he came over with my Great-Grandmother, Mary Logan Evans, from Ireland when they were small.

I'm not sure why he was called Skinner or why we all call him cousin instead of uncle.

d#: 0208702
Name: Logan, Patrick J. (Skinner)
Date: Jan 13 1949
Source: Source unknown;  Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #050.
Notes: Logan, Patrick J. (Skinner), beloved husband of Emma (nee Godenschwager); father of Mrs. Farrell Finnerty (Bertha), James, Doris; brother of Catherine Parderski, Agnes Herbison, and grandfather; at his late residence, 9309 Bancroft Ave. Friends received at James P. Mullancy Funeral Home, 9811 Miles Ave. Funeral Friday, Jan. 14. Holy Name Church, 9:30 a. m.

Lois Grant Mora

Lois was my grandmother's aunt.

Technically, she was born Hannah Lois Grant but hated her birth name. My grandmother, was given her middle name in her honor, Lois.

Lois was born on June 12, 1890 in Troy, NY. She was the eldest of three.

In 1913 she married George Mora. They never had any children and she died on September 3, 1958 in Lake, Ohio. She was interred at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

Harriet

This is going to be one short post.

Harriet P William born circa 1815 in MA.

She marries Abraham Miles in December 1835 in Cleveland.

They appear on and off in the census for the Euclid area.

Harriet dies May 9, 1892 in Cleveland. Her body was sent to Independence Township Vault by a municipal Cleveland Cemetery.

That's it. I know nothing more. Harriet is a true enigma.