Who’s (Grand) Daughter Am I?
March 9, 2018
International Women’s Day was yesterday. However today would have been my grandmother’s birthday. I took Fran McVeigh’s advice The Reason Why and when I couldn’t think of a specific story, I went back and looked at pictures. To be fair to myself, she’s been gone a long time now and those memories I am reaching for are deep in crevices of my mind. So I give you fragments and I feel as if it were yesterday.
My grandmother told this story and so many more.
Florence and her rooster early 1900s
In the early 1900’s, when I was a small child, my father and some of his brothers got the idea to go out and stake a claim in the Dakotas. When didn’t have much and we left our southern Missouri home and travel out to the prairie of North Dakota. My daddy ( Lowie Washington Kneedler) was a farmer and the brothers heard tell that you could get free land out in the Dakotas. They remained out in the Dakotas just over two and 1/2 years. During that time her favorite companion was a banty rooster. Her father died when she was just seven years old leaving her mother, a younger sister, and my grandmother alone.
What I hope I learned from Florence Mae Kneedler Wilkerson
- History is where we come from, it’s good to remember that.
- Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
- Speak softly and have a spine of steel
- We can get through this and anything else that life throws our way
- Joy comes in the morning
- Nature restores
- Family is where we rest
- Girls rule the world
- I can make do and I can make that
- Handwork is life’s work
- The written word is gold
Little Florence on the prairie perhaps 1905
I think of her today as the maple in our yard struggles to survive under the tremendous pressure of the unexpected. Broken branches litter the yard and we hope for its survival. She survived a lot, my gram. I never heard her complain about a thing. Just like that tree she was full of grace and beauty.
doesn’t she carry that little dog in the same way she carried that rooster?
Reflections from a Coach 
I am making all kinds of connections to this slice and now want to slice soon about my grandmothers. I have memories that I definitely need to check. It is amazing how some things stick with you over time.
My favorite line….’I can make do and I can make that’.
Great slice! Thanks for sharing!
Moved that line around on the paper a little. Thanks for noticing.
Your gram and my mom —who taught me many of the same lessons —left a legacy that ensures strong women will endure. Loved your post thank you
So much to love in your post and and what you learned from your grandmother, Florence. (I had a great aunt Florence and have always loved that name.) A woman full of grace and beauty, speak softly and have a spine of steel – it’s valuable to look back at these powerful women in our lives.
What a great story – and the pictures are treasures. I want to post this line over my desk: I can make do and I can make that. Goes so well with my OLW – create! I may need to create something that holds those words for me. Thank you — so inspiring.
Clare
Let’s take up needlepoint. I have a few things I need to remember too.
I, too, loved the line “I can make do and I can make that”. What a wonderful bundle of memories here. I really like the pictures, too, and how your gram holds her rooster and her dog. Makes me want to write about the strong women in my life. Thanks for writing about yours!
Excellent collage of pictures, words, memories!