I Heard Her Voice Today

Today I was able to speak with my cousin Alicia. We talked for almost an hour. I'd written to her and asked questions to jog her memory about our common family stories.
Alicia confirmed many of my memories and gave me insight into the personality of those family members I never knew.

I remembered her grandmother - my grandmother's sister.  Through memory, I felt a darkness and sensed an austere persona surrounding Aunt Alice. Alicia confirms that the house was dark, needing the curtains opened because cedar trees covered the front of the house and kept the huge porch secreted away.

Mother at Aunt Alice's house.

Alicia remembers sitting on the porch watching the world go by on Washington Street without anyone knowing she was there. Aunt Alice drove a black Cadillac and was not a "warm and cuddly grandmother."Nevertheless, Mother and her parents and brother lived with Aunt Alice when the "big house" was being rebuilt after the fire in 1940 (approx).

Alicia's mother whom we called "Little Alice" remembered my great grandmother - Banmama - Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon. Ella Gordon was a calm lady, serene, and duty-bound in decisions. One of her daughters experienced a brain injury at birth and remained at home her entire life (Janie). Caring for Janie was a monster task, one that fell to my grandmother when she inherited the "big house" from her mother. Ella Gordon died in 1937. Banmama I never knew, but I met her today.Alicia told me that Little Alice recalled Banmama managed to care for Janie with such grace. When asked about it, Banmama said, "It keeps me humble and on my knees (in prayer)." That description and statement affected me in a profound way. I heard her voice.

George R Gordon home on Washington Street.
Jean Gordon is pictured on the front porch.
Later served as Methodist Parsonage

Our family, like most others, has feet of clay. We are some colorful characters with tremendous highs and devastating lows. A remarkable home that the Gordon sisters' brother (George R) built remains on Washington Street today. I'm sure my mother told me about this house, but for whatever reason, it did not register.
The Methodist Church bought the house sometime after George R's death. It had been fashioned into apartments at one time, but he is the man who built the house. My high school classmate David Ivey lived there with his parents George and Doris Ivey when Dr. Ivey was minister at First Methodist. I was dumbfounded about this revelation.

Fred Hamel, Thomas Lockett, Dorothy Ritchie, John Ansley Ritchie, Jack (John C) Ritchie
Goss Dansby holds Thomas Gordon, Margaret Horne Dansby, Gordon Horne, Helen Horne,
Ann Usrey holding James Cooper, John Ritchie Usrey.
Jean Gordon, Emma Sue Gordon, Alice Gordon Lide, Susie Gordon Ritchie
Mildred Gordon Horne, Frances Usrey Hamel, Charlotte Lide Lockett
Orlando Lide Lockett, David Hamel, Martha Ellen Usrey, Margaret Jane Dansby,
Pamela Gail Horne, Susan Ritchie

Today has been "one of those days" when family stories came to life and played out as a saga I wish I remembered more fully.