This
page is dedicated with love to my Grandmother, Ida Irene
Terry
b. Feb
23, 1875 in Onondaga
Without her loving ministrations, I wonder sometimes what I
might have become. My parents separated and later
divorced. Gram was 60 when she took on the job of caring for a
baby girl. I'm over 60 now myself, and I think about
what it must have meant for a woman at that time in life
to take on the physical responsibility of raising an
infant. She made me feel special, and her love never
wavered once.
Like so many places in America right after the Depression, times
were hard in Charlotte, Michigan. Going to work wasn't
what Mama wanted to do after I was born, but it was necessary
for our survival; my mother had to become the bread-earner,
and "Gram", as she is lovingly remembered to this day,
took me under her wing. Mother had to go into Lansing to find
work. Jobs were very scarce and she had to find a way back and
forth, which was especially difficult during the cold Michigan
winters of that time. Mother worked in tea rooms, shops
and then the defense plants during the War. She provided a
living for her Mother and her baby daughter, Lynette.
I don't remember seeing Mother a lot during those early years,
but when it was time for me to enter school, Gram sold the house
in Charlotte and we moved into Lansing in 1941.
In 1989, on a genealogy research trip back to my birth
place, I was
privileged to be invited inside the house that was my
first home. After she sold her farm in Onondaga,
Grandmother had purchased the house located directly across the
road from the Eaton County fair grounds in Charlotte, Michigan.
When I was a child, Ida and Ollie Zimmerman were neighbors
on the side toward the Armory, and George Riddle and his family
lived on the other.
Today, there is a brand-new Baptist Church directly behind our
old home. The house is about 100 years old and it still looks
good. The new owners gave it care too, and going
inside, I remembered all the nooks and crannies that were
special places to play indoors. Under the big round oak dining
room table was my favorite. The four sections that the claw feet
at the base of the table made were the "rooms" in
my imaginary house. Outside, Gram had a garden, at the back of
the property and I had a swing and a sand pile. There were lots
of different kinds of trees and shrubs, one I especially
remember that had beautiful pink blossoms in the
Spring.
It was a good home, and Gram took good care of me. One of
my first memories is her saying, "What you smiling at,
Lammie?" and the bright golden morning light coming
in the front room windows where she used sit to curl my hair.
I was Gram's little lamb, as she called me. We used to go
to bed about dark. Gram would set the oil lamp down on the
bedside table and sit on her side of the bed to wind her clock
while I was getting settled down on my side of the bed.
After she lay down and listened to me say my prayers, in a few
minutes, she would always say, "Now, if you get to sleep
before I do, you holler!" And I would drift
off, making big plans to beat Gram to sleep so I could
"holler" first--never did. Now, all these years
later, sometimes I do "holler in my sleep. Life
is funny, isn't it?
Now, I'm about the same age as Gram was when she took me to
raise. I don't know if I have as much stamina as she did; it
takes a lot to care for a baby. I give her all the credit
in the world for the job she did. I couldn't wait to get this
web page up-- a little closer to where I know she is--to tell
her again, "Thanks, Gram!" Be seeing
you soon.
Love always, Lynette
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Lynette's Family History
Pagesİ1999-2003
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