My Family: Chapter 46

My Grandma Francis lived with us off and on since my Grandpa died. There wasn’t anything Mom wouldn’t do for her. But I will always remember she didn’t like Shirley, Lucille, or me - a fact she didn’t try to hide. It’s not that Grandma Francis would hit us or anything, she just talk hateful to us. She would take Ronnie’s and Sonny's side in everything. I remember once, Grandma Francis got her Social Security check and bought a bag of candy. She called Ronny into the pantry, which was off of the kitchen, and feed him the whole bag. I stood on the outside and listened to her tell him not to give us any of it.

Out of Grandma Francis family she only care for her granddaughter, Sue. Even Aunt Alice who wouldn’t lift one finger to help her mother. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit with his mother, he wrote her letters instead. I don’t think anyone knew why he didn’t visit, and if Mom knew she wasn’t saying. All I ever heard Mom say was Uncle Vondon was ashamed of his family. After the war, he moved to Ashland, Kentucky and got married. I don’t think we would have ever found out he had gotten married if his wife hadn’t found Mom’s address and wrote her. She told Mom she didn’t know Uncle Vondon had a family. She wanted to come for a visit and meet his sister and mother. Mom invited her to come and visit for a week.

When Uncle Vondon’s wife got to our house, I heard her tell Mom that Uncle Vondon had said if she came for visit he would divorce her. She asked Mom if she  thought he would? Mom said she didn’t think so. But later she wrote that when she got home Uncle Vondon had filed for a divorce while she had been away. The next time that we heard from him, he was living in North Carolina with a different lady.

Grandma Francis (home)

About this time, Grandma Francis came to live with us again but now Mom found her a house across the creek from us. The old man who had lived there had died and Mom moved Grandma in before it could be torn down. At one time there had been four one-room homes with porches across from us, but they either burnt down (once with an old man inside) or were torn down. Now there was only two houses left.

Mom said she wanted that house because she didn't like for Grandma Francis to spend the night alone without someone close-by to run for help if needed. So guess what? It was me who had to spent the night with her when I was at home. I think the real reason she couldn't live with us was because of my parents partying on the weekends.