Monday, August 09, 2010

When the Saints Go Marching In

Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Based on what I've learned about my grandmother in the last 48 hours, I wonder if that's a song she sang to repent.

I have discovered that my dear sweet grandma wasn't as dear and as sweet as she portrayed herself in her latter years. As a matter of fact, she had quite a reputation in a small Alabama town back in the 1920s. After her husband died, she allegedly found comfort in the arms of other men and ended up having two babies by two different fathers---in addition to the four children she already had.

She took her secrets to her grave---leaving only the gossip about her life to be passed down from generation to generation.

If you want to research your family history, a site I recommend is FamilySearch.org

2 comments:

Pam Archer said...

Weelllllll, we all have our secrets, don't we? Give Grandma a break. lol

When we were going through some old papers, after my husband's grandmother passed, we found out she had a child prior to her marriage. She married when she was 12 1/2!!!!

Linda J. Alexander said...

Secrets make having a family history ... a family history! I'd much rather find "skeletons" than the reputed, & unlikely, angels most-often claimed. Your grandmother's story shows her humanity. Consider what it must've been like for her, how her life changed, & you get the gist of the reality she lived.

My great-grandmother always said she was born in Washington, on White House grounds. How's THAT for a story?! She WAS born in Washington--Washington, Louisiana, & that white house must've been where her boss lived since she was the granddaughter of a freed slave ... a story she never shared w/even her children, nonethless anyone else. After all, folks don't look a heckuva lot lighter-skinned than me! ROFL

But I've become so enriched in learning her story, & understand the human condition that much more through her life.

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