Trial by Fire

I don’t write much about the history of my father’s side of the family because they simply didn’t have the strong oral tradition that my mother’s family did.  This is such a loss.  My paternal grandmother was abandoned by her mother, raised by her grandmother till she was nine.  She spent the rest of her childhood in the home of an uncle whose wife made her very unwelcome. I spent the night with Maw Maw one time. As we lay talking in her big bed, she told me of her grandmother’s death.

“I jist turned nine years old, ‘bout the age you are now.  Me and Ma had picked some beans in the cool a’the mornin’ an’ I was a’helpin’ ‘er git ‘em ready fer canning.  Ma set down in her rocker to rest jist a minute an’ I was a’playin’ with my kitten.  I was glad she was a’sleepin’ a while since I didn’ want’a mess with them beans no how.  After a spell, I saw Ma’s head was kinda hung to one side an’ spit was a’runnin’ out’a her mouth kinda foamy.  She wouldn’ wake up.  I got up to run over to git Miz Jone’s an’ seen there was a fire between our place an’ hearn.  There warn’t nothin’ to do but run through it the best I could.  Them flames was a’lickin’ at my feet an’ I was jist a’cryin’.  I got Miz Jones, but it ain’t made no difference.  When they got over to see ‘bout Ma, she was dead.  They sent for Uncle Jeb to git’er buried.

I had to go to Uncle Jeb’s, then.  He was awful good to me, but Aunt Lottie was jist hard down.  She whooped on me ever chancet she got, an’ they was plenty.  She made shore I ain’t done no sittin’ aroun’.  I married soon’s I could , jist to git outta her way.”