Dear Daughters,
A driving force behind the Dear Daughters Wisdom Project is to foster a stronger inter-generational connection. It’s heart-breaking to realize that we rarely know or remember anything about our ancestors beyond our grandmother.
Stop and think about that for a minute.
That means your children won’t know about Nana unless you share your memories.
That means your grandchildren won’t know about me unless you or your children share your knowledge (or they read my woman’s wisdom book!)
Memories are slippery things. They often get overlaid, corrupted, archived, and sometimes, we are unable to retrieve much of anything.
So if we don’t record our wisdom, traditions, history, memories,…and love, it disappears.
Then all our descendants are left with are a few old photos and an obituary.
How tragic is that?
“When you make loving others the story of your life, there’s never a final chapter, because the legacy continues. You lend your light to one person, and he or she shines it on another and another and another.”
Opray Winfrey
Here are my memories of Gen Weeding, your great-grandmother.
When I close my eyes I hear Grandma Weeding’s frequent musical laughter, I see her meticulously clean house, I smell her mouth-watering chicken (my all time favorite), and sometimes when I glance in the mirror, I catch an echo of her trying to teach left-handed little me to crochet in her hallway mirror. I remember large boisterous gatherings then lasted well after midnight, wild parlor games, and tables overflowing with food and desserts. Eating at Grandma Weeding’s house consisted of appetizers, dinner, second dinner, and never ending desserts, usually of the chocolate variety. Grandma loved to play cards in the screened-in porch during the summer.
Patricia (Pat) Weeding is your great-aunt, Gen’s oldest daughter. She wrote this little biography.
Mom grew up during the depression. She was the oldest girl of six children with a widowed mother. Her oldest three brothers went off to WWII. Don’t get me wrong, times were hard, but Mom would talk about the “Peppy Club” where friends and family gathered at each other’s homes for lots of laughter and singing around the piano and being pulled behind her uncle car while on skis!
Mom loved to sing and even tried out at a local talent show, finishing in second place. She sang “Indian Love Call,” from the 1936 film, “Rose Marie.” Mom’s first job was as a telephone operator, but she was forced to quit when she got married as the company would not employ a married woman. After all, she would have a husband to support her!
Mom could do anything she put her mind to. She sewed clothes for all five of her children. She hung wallpaper, repaired cracks. cooked and baked her famous (from scratch) chocolate cake, and in the summer made her yummy creamy cucumber salad (your favorite!) She taught us kids how to tumble on an old mattress in the attic for fun! Later in life, she and Dad started a successful picture framing business. Dad used to say, “she was the expert.” He just cut the frames and swept the floor while she created the layout and design.
Mom’s favorite hobby was counted cross stitch. She’d create beautiful pieces from a simple white piece of cloth. Above all, Mom was proud of her family. During one of our last conversations, Mom told me the best thing she did in her life was to have us five kids.
Fun Maker, Joyful, Musical, Crafty, Artistic, Determined, Confident, Industrious, Entreprenurial, Family Centered.
Daughters, do these traits and values sound familiar?
Isn’t it amazing to feel a connection with your female ancestor–Genevieve Therese Fisher Weeding?!
All my love.
Read about your other Great-Grandma here.
Terri Weeding 