25 March 2014

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch 2014: #11

Everyday Ruralty



QUESTIONS

What is your favorite room of your house or apartment?

I don't really have a favorite room in this house. The master bathroom is the one getting the most use these days, but it is certainly not my favorite room!


What's your favorite topping for pancakes or waffles?

Mrs. Butterworth's syrup and butter are my favorite pancake toppings.


Do you like dried fruit?

I like raisins, but I don't think that I've ever had other dried fruit. David has and he has horror stories about it.


Please finish this statement. "As soon as we have good spring weather, I'm going to_______."

As soon as we have good spring weather, I'm going to go out and take lots of flower pictures. The bluebonnets are finally here and there have been very few days where both weather and time were working together so that I could do a photo shoot.


Tell me a memory from your childhood.

I shared one memory on this blog Saturday. You can find it here: Book of Me: First Day of School.

Grandma (left) and Aunt Mae.
Another memory that I have from my childhood happened while I was spending some time with my great-aunt, Mae P. Worley. She was my maternal grandma's older sister. She lived in a little mill village in Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. She had lived in her house for a long time and people knew her to be a kind woman. She was beautiful inside and out and would help anybody that needed her help.

One day while she and I were in her kitchen, there was a knock at her back door. She went to answer it and there was a man, a very upset man. This man was haunted by horrific memories of the death of his wife. He was crying. I was just a little girl at that point and I don't believe that I had ever seen a man cry. I didn't quite know how to handle that. He sat on Aunt Mae's step crying over and over that he couldn't get to her. I wondered who "her" was.

Aunt Mae tried to comfort him. She explained to me later what had happened that was causing him to be so upset. See, there had been a fire and he was able to get out of the house somehow. He thought his wife was right there with him. She wasn't. He turned and saw that she was still inside the house, on the other side of the flames, calling out to him. He wasn't able to get to her to save her. He watched her burn to death trapped inside their house.

This awful fire had happened many years before he sat there on Aunt Mae's back step, maybe even before I was born. To him, it was as if it had just happened. He never recovered.

12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you, Denise. I appreciate you stopping by to read my posts very much. I hope that you have a wonderful night.

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  2. Thank you for your comment in my blog.
    Your great-aunt must have been a great person.

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    1. You're welcome and thank you, too.

      Yes, Aunt Mae was a great person, very loving. So was my grandma. I miss them both very much. They had a sister in between them named Julia. I don't remember Aunt Julia at all.

      I hope that you have a great week!

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  3. Your aunt was a very special lady. I believe you took after her in many ways because your kindness shows on your blog. HOPE you have a great rest of the week!

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    1. What a sweet comment, Debbie. Thank you! I hope that you have a great rest of the week, too. :)

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  4. Your great-aunt sounds like a wonderful person. Thank you for sharing your memory.

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    1. Thank you for reading it. Yes, she was a wonderful person. Some of my happiest memories are of time that I spent with her. She had long silvery, white hair that she let me brush and I absolutely loved brushing her hair. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a great week!

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  5. That's a really touching story. What a kind woman your great aunt was. Mine was too :)

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    1. We were both very blessed with our great aunts. I am very happy about that. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a great week!

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  6. I want to see your flower pictures. That story must have confused you when you were a child. I remember things like that and I just couldn't understand adults.

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    1. Thanks, Patrice. I have posted some of them in the Monday Morning Musings post for March 31. Please let me know what you think of them.

      Yes, that incident both confused and scared me. It still upsets me to think about it, about how she died and how he couldn't save her, could only watch it happening to her. I can't imagine the immense guilt that he was living with because he made it out and she didn't. I imagine that they are together again by now and he can be happy again.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a great week!

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