BigMother, aka, Elise Carroll Barrett
BigMother was what my name for her implies. She was my "big" mother, as opposed to Momma, who's my belly-button mother, or LittleMother, I suppose. My Momma was born late to BigMother anyway, and then was a young mother herself. BigMother had been married since 1916, having given birth to 12 other children since then, nine of whom survived to adulthood, and then came Momma. Blond, beautiful, and cherished among all the barely older brothers who were more near her birth order/age. I wish I had known BigMother then. I'm sure she would have had wonderful lessons and experiences to share. By the time I came along, she was 60 years old...and retired from working at the Valley Department Store in Vicksburg, MS. It would be many years more before she and I would become "buddies". I wasn't popular among my peers as a child, or pretty...or cool. LOL I was, however, the resident grandchild to the resident FAVORED child...and in THAT, was great power to my little heart and mind. BigMother and I "did" together, kinda like Mason "does" with Momma now. We went to Sunday School at Crawford St. Methodist Church.....I went to her classroom, not my own. From the time I got out from school on Friday afternoons, my one thought was how to parlay the weekend into an overnight opportunity with BigMother so that we could cook "breakfast for supper"...and we won't even BEGIN to talk about the Senior Citizens Meetings every week. LOL The look on Benny's face on those evening when "we" cooked was priceless!!! "Oh, no..not again!!!" I never was sure if he meant the meal, or me!!! LOL She died when I was barely human and certainly not old enough to undertand the value of "those who have gone before". I miss her to this day, and talk to her, sometimes out loud, when life gets just a bit more than I think I can bear. I miss her more than I have words.....and I got ALOT of words!!!
There are a myriad of other people who have, for one reason or the next, had a profound impact on my life over the years. Some I can't name, but others live in what memory I have of them from years gone by, and I can name...
Benny, my grandfather, husband of BigMother, aka, Benjamin Lafayette Barrett - the rock, the foundation, the pillar against which we all fling ourselves in comparison. And a simple man of simple love and affections. They just don't make 'em like him anymore.
Paul Ellis Nunnally Barrett, aka, Nunky, my Uncle, my daddy when I didn't have a daddy, and before I had a real Daddy.
Freddy Groome, aka, my first boyfriend. He was nearly thirty, I was five. I think we married Freddy about the same time we married Daddy. I think they came as a set. LOL
Dorothy Ellen Smith Ettinger Kenworthy, aka, Nanny. She was my memory and the face I saw in the mirror, until she simply laid down one night, and finally rested.
Sheldon Walker Kenworthy, aka, GranShell and Connecticut Yankee. LOL He was the largest thing in a small and incomplete life. Having come from an incomplete life himself, he knew how to NOT do it. That was his best advice.
And always and forever amen, amen, amen....my children. You know who you are....and I love you more than my own breath.
SEE!!!, told you it would get lengthy/messy/wordy. LOL
I am in love with your way with words! My favorite:
ReplyDelete"until she simply laid down one night, and finally rested."
You were MEANT to write.
Momma, who's that in the picture with Big Mother?
ReplyDelete