Sisters

Mee Maw had 12 brothers and sisters but the funniest relationship was the one between her and sisters Dee and Geneva.

Mee Maw was quiet and reserved. She didn't talk a lot at church or around people that she didn't really know. She was a minimalist.... loved the look of crisp white curtains against a white uncluttered wall... sparse furnishings and not much in the way of clutter. Dee and Gen were polar opposites.

Dee was chatty and the matriarch of our family. When Dee spoke, you listened and if you knew what was best for you, you did what she told you to! Her house was always full of people and children to the point that she lost track of who she was talking to. If she looked in your general direction and hollered, you had best come running... even if she had no idea who you were and went through the list: "Diane, Venita, Joan, Sharon, Carolyn, Sylvia".... "uh, Dee, my name is Melanie" to which she would respond, "you know who you are, now come here!" I think there were so many people in her house that she probably forgot which kids were her own and which ones had been there so long or so often that they just took up residence!

Dee always wore an apron and I don't know that I ever saw her without one. I suppose that is because she was usually in the kitchen and was famous for her strawberry-rhubarb pies and the BEST peanut butter pies ever! Campmeeting rolled around every summer and Jack would drive her to the dining hall where she would start handing pie after pie to be taken to the kitchen for the evening meal. If there was a piece left when you got through the line, you were in for a real treat! The one non-treat in her kitchen was pickled beans and corn! YUCK!!! And quite a surprise if you were expecting regular beans and corn!!! I was a child when I bit into that concoction. There was a traveling evangelist at her table for dinner that day and I KNEW better than to spit it out! I chose my veggies very carefully after that in the off chance that something might be pickled!

Where Mee Maw was quiet in church, Aunt Dee was a shouter! When the Holy Spirit moved her, she would begin to cry and then she would start to testify! That would lead to walking and I can remember her walking the floors and shouting... giving thanks to the God who had carried her through. She had a faith that was real and a joy in the Lord that was electric. I can imagine her shouting in heaven now... and probably calling the angels by the wrong name as she goes through the list until she gets it right!

Geneva was also a collector. Gen kept stuff that she might need someday.... 100 green plastic containers that strawberries came in "just in case".... snuff cans that might be useful someday...funny stuff that made her little eclectic home a neat place to be!

Mee Maw never fueled my interest in genealogy because she just wasn't that interested. She wasn't big on dates and didn't have many pictures in her house. Family history was just never a passion of hers. My great aunt Geneva, however, was a different story! Aunt Gen forgot more in her life than I will ever know about my family. Where Mee Maw didn't care and Dee would forget the names, Geneva could tell you who you were, what date you were born on and what day of the week that was.... "Little Mel, you were born on Saint Patricks Day 1971, the 17th of March, that was a Wednesday... Wednesday's child is full of woe"... she just knew the details about all of us... and there were a LOT! She could tell you who you were related to for generations, stories about the past, who we looked or acted like, and details that everyone else forgot! Walking through the cemetery at "decoration" was an education if Geneva were with you because she brought life back to the ancestors and she kept their stories alive. I think that is why I write the stories down. Geneva never did and the stories and people are too precious to not leave that legacy for the generations that follow. We come from good people... hard workers... honest people with character... and our children need to know that... it gives them something to work toward.

What Gen failed to write down, she made up for in the treasured photos she left us with. Gen's first camera was a little Kodak Brownie and many of our precious and priceless family photos of the past were taken with that little camera. She spent a fortune making copies of other peoples pictures and amassed quite a collection of photographs from the past. Many of those we were able to scan and they live on today. Gen would have loved what we could do with scanners, digital cameras and computers! She loved pictures and she and Dee were quite a contrast to my Mee Maw. At Mee Maw's house, the living room was white walls with a framed piece of wall art over the couch. One wall had five pictures in stair step formation of her five daughters in descending age. For many many years, that was it! Dee's house was quite the contrast... there were so many pictures of family on her wall that I could not tell you what the living room walls were made of or even what color they were!

With the many differences, they were sisters at the heart of it. They argued, laughed, remembered, lived, grew up, and shared. They were different enough to be unique but alike enough to have a bond that lasted until they began to, one by one, make their journey home. I like to think that their eternity is filled with laughter and remembering! I'm glad I was a part of that inner circle that got to watch their relationship!

Mee Maw with her sister Gen and daughters Rita, Elizabeth, and Joan