Posted on by Michelle Anderson

Lucky

I didn’t use to think I was lucky. I was the only grandchild who remembered Kermit. I felt that there was a lot on my shoulders to hold the scant memories I had of him tight and not think about or talk about them. No one else had them so if I talked about them would it be bragging?

I remember him being tall, but then almost everyone is taller than I am. I wanted to be tall, but I feel I am more Eunice and Lydia then the taller, svelte women on my mothers side of the family. Being short does not make me feel lucky. But then I think about the one strong memory I have of Kermit. While it’s sad, I cling to it as hard as I can.

I was three. I lived in Lexington, Kentucky with my parents, Raymond and Joyce and my younger brother Mark. We got the call that my dad needed to return to illinois quickly if he wanted to say goodbye to his father. Kermit was sick and in the hospital. They felt he would soon die. I remember driving in the car what seemed like a LONG time. Mark and I had just learned how to sing the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I’m sure we must have driven my mother crazy singing it as we drove to pick up my father who was in Indiana working.

I remember being at the hospital, a big thing during those days. Children were not allowed in the hospital, and they had to get special permission for us to visit. Mark and I were supposed to sing our new song for him, but it ended up being a solo when he wouldn’t sing with me. I remember Aunt Wava standing by his bed, a sheepskin lying across his bed. His hands stroked the fleece. Afterward, Eunice took us out into the hallway and peeled an orange for us to share. Sometimes I smell an orange and it takes me back to that time.

So am I lucky? I am blessed beyond measure.

Posted on by Michelle Anderson

Unknown Eunice & Kermit

This weekend, Nathan Schneiderman married his Emily, and I’ve enjoyed seeing all the photos from picturesque Mexico. It looks like they’ve had a lovely time and many blessings on their union. When I looked to see what photo I had planned for today I discovered it was a photo I’d already done. So I got to looking through some pictures I still need to scan and came across these lovelies. And since I believe Kermit and Eunice were at the ocean, I wanted to share them.

Ok, I don’t know for sure they are at the ocean, but now tell me if I’m wrong, I do not see Eunice getting her feet wet, shoes and all, to go in any body of water that’s not an ocean! Based on the style of her hair and some other photos I have in which she looks similar, I think that these photos were taken around 1955. I love that they got as close to the ocean as possible. The first time I saw it and was able to go in, I was in jeans, and nothing was going to stop me from putting my feet in the Atlantic. In the middle photo, it looks like there might be a pier or a water break.

Now, my dad says that Kermit and Eunice would go to the Florida Keys with family friends, but to me, these don’t look like Florida. I could be wrong, but Eunice’s coat looks too hefty for the warm Florida temperatures. At first, I thought Kermit had something on his tie, but I believe that’s just the design. But Eunice is wearing a lovely corsage on her coat. I’m left wondering and wishing I knew where they’d gone and what they were doing, as it looks like they were having a lot of fun.

Posted on by Michelle Anderson · 1 Comment

Christmas 1980

I think I might have brought you this photo already, perhaps years ago. But I was feeling nostalgic, and this photo made me feel good. Eunice writes on the back of this photo that this was taken at Christmas of 1980. I don’t know if we planned to be seated like this, but I love it! We have Matthew, Michelle, Judd holding Julie, Eunice holding Nicholas, Mark holding Isaac, Jennifer, and Kim. The Schneiderman’s bookend all the Millers. So Cute!!

While we are spread across the nation and celebrating with families of our own, I think back to these days when we were all together. While it’s been years since we were together, we remain family, which neither time nor distance can change. As we begin this holiday season, may you have peace and joy with some childlike wonder thrown in.

Posted on by Michelle Anderson

Eunice & Car

For some reason, I am enamored of every photo I discover with Eunice in a dress. So to find her next to a car, just makes me love it even more. The date on this photo is April 1938, but that’s when the photos were printed, so I would imagine that this was late 1937 to early 1938. Eunice and Kermit were not married until June of 1939, so this would have been taken before their union.

In the 1930s, the average price of a new car was between $400 and $600 brand new. However, car ownership was still limited, with only about one in five and a half Americans owning a car at the start of the decade. 

Here are some other things to consider about cars in the 1930’s. As always, in addition to the cost of the car itself, owners also had to pay for license plates, oil, repairs, and gasoline. At the time, gasoline cost around 19 cents per gallon, and cars typically got around 15 miles per gallon.  And used cars could be just as expensive as brand-new cars.

I don’t know who’s car this might have been or where it was taken, but Eunice sure seems happy to be next to it. I love the simplicity of her outfit. It appears to be made of warm fabric like wool, with a simple long-sleeved blouse and skirt. With stockings and simple shoes completing her outfit, Eunice is ready for a brisk fall, winter, or spring day.

Posted on by Michelle Anderson

Feeling Special

When I found this photo, the feelings that I had were overwhelming. It wasn’t because it was a Christmas photo or that we had an aluminum tree. It was the look on my grandma’s face. The love I see there is how she always made me feel. Now I’m not saying my time with Eunice was always smiling times and sunshine. We had our storms and personality clashes. But I always felt her love for me. 

Like many from her era, Eunice was not a professor of loving words. She was raised in a time when children should be seen and not heard. I never asked her what her relationship with her parents was like. She’d tell me stories about them, but never how she felt; they were her parents. After the years spent serving the children and families of West Wichita, I have seen what it’s like when a child is not nurtured with praise or feels like they are loved. I’m not saying that Eunice experienced this with her parents, but it would explain a lot in how she treated others. 

Eunice was, at times, hard to love, and her personality was too much for some. As someone who also can be a lot, I could commiserate with how she may feel. Many times, it was just her and us, Mark and I. But sometimes, I got lucky when she’d come and visit us, and it would be just her and I. She liked to talk about Kermit and her father and I liked to listen. 

It wasn’t until I became a grandmother that I thought about how I wanted my grandchildren to feel, especially when remembering me. It doesn’t matter what photo I see with Eunice in it; her love is right there, shining back at me. Even at the end, when her memories and personality shifted, I still felt love from her. Even though she couldn’t have told me how we were related, I felt she knew we were family. 

My hope is that my brothers and cousins feel the same way I do, but I know they had their own relationships with Eunice and some of them were strained. I witnessed my brother Isaac struggle to find shared interests or topics that he and she could discuss. While they never were able to grow their relatioship, I don’t think it stopped Eunice from loving him or anyone else. While I miss receiving that love from her, I feel so blessed to have these photos so I know that THIS is how I want my grandchildren to feel when they think of me.