My Wonderful Grandmother

One of the most important people in my life was my Grandmother, my Mother's Mom. She was born 119 years ago on August 8th. She was absolutely the most wonderful Grandmother a girl could ask for. She was sweet and kind to everyone. Although she lived in Missouri and we didn't get to see her very often, she always kept in touch and would write letters to us several times a month. She was very precious to me. This picture was taken in 1961, just four years before she died. Grandma was born on August 8, 1887, and died on September 11, 1965. She was 78 years old. Mama went to Missouri to take care of her when she had a stroke which caused her death. Her given name was Mary Olive but she went by the name "Ollie". I was named Mary after her and I was always so proud of that fact. So was Grandma, as when she wrote me a letter, she always told me that I was her only namesake. She had another granddaughter named "Mary" but she was named after her Daddy's sister, apparently. I always thought Grandma was really hurt that she was not also named after her. I never did hear the story about why that happened.

I have several pictures of my Grandmother which I cherish so very much. Here are some of them:

Mary Olive was 16 years old in these two photos. Isn't she beautiful!! Don't you just love the Victorian hat and vintage clothing.

I dearly love the next two pictures of Grandma. My Grandfather, Thomas, loved photography and I'm sure he probably took these pictures:

My Grandmother is pictured here (on the Left) with her sister-in-law, Ellen. They are sitting on a Bodark tree. The Bodark tree is a hard-wood tree and, when you cut one of the branches off, the inside wood is absolutely beautiful. We always called this tree the "Hedge Apple" or "Horse Apple" tree. I found this on the internet about the Bodark:

Bodark, Osage-orange, hedge apple or monkey-brain tree all refer to Maclura pomifera, a native tree of great utility. The wood of Osage-orange is extremely strong and rot resistant. It makes long-lived fence posts; the thorny tree was once widely planted as a natural fence in the Midwest. Native Americans found another use: the strong and limber branches made excellent bows. French trappers called the tree Bois du Arc, literally “Wood of the Bow”. You can easily see how it came to be called bodark tree in later years. The Native American heritage and the smell of the fruit explains the Osage-orange moniker (nick name). The fruit is the size of a small grapefruit and lime green in color. The skin has a convoluted and curved design which looked like the outside of a brain.

Mama and her siblings wrote a memory book to my Grandmother and here is one of the stories about Grandma that my Mother wrote:

"I remember one time back in Bassett when I was seven, you were washing clothes in a tub outside the kitchen window. I was sitting in the window watching you. You came in the kitchen for a minute. We had no screens then and all at once I fell out the window in the tub of nice warm soapy water. The wash board kept me from going under. You ran outside the back door yelling, 'Tom, come here, Hazel is going to drown!' "

I would love for everyone to write their favorite story about our Grandmother in the comments. I know for sure that Janet has a really funny one to write. How about it Sissy?