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Throwback Thursday: My Great-Grandma Kimes

My mom with her Grandma Kimes
None of my great-grandparents were still alive by the time I was born, so I have had to learn of them from my own parents' memories. 

A few years ago, my mom gave me a copy of the photo above, together with the following poem, entitled, "Grandma Kimes":
She loved color
and saw it everywhere.
Thinking of her rugs
And the colors she needed
To make her patterns,
Whether hooked or rag.
A dead forgotten Christmas tree
Burnt orange
And glimmering in the sun,
A thing of naught to most, 
But to Grandma
Represented beauty,
A color needed 
to fill in the next spot
In her creation.

We, too, are like colors in a rug,
Placed in a given circumstance
To beautify and shine forth.


I'm not sure when Grandma Kimes started making rugs; I can't imagine she had much spare time when she was raising 15 children!  She married my great-grandpa Kimes after his first wife died and left him with 8 children.  She cared for those children, and bore 7 more.  I can only imagine the challenges she must have faced there in the Ozarks of Arkansas.  From what I have learned of her, she really did "beautify and shine forth" despite what I imagine were difficult circumstances.  

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Thanks for Great-grandma Kimes, and for my mom's shared memories.

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Comments

  1. Rozy LassApril 17, 2014 at 6:26 AM

    I got to know one great-grandma, she died when I was ten. She was taller than me, so it was a shock to grow up and learn that she was about 4'11". I'm 5'7" but still remember her being taller than me. I wish I had a journal or letters or something from my grandma's. But I guess they were too busy raising children to write anything. That's one reason I keep a journal; I want my posterity to know me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BiancaApril 17, 2014 at 9:25 AM

    I only knew one grandma, all the others died before I turned 2. So can't even imagine to have great-grandparents!!!
    Just stand still for a moment of the kind of life you great grandmother would have had.... Makes me want to go back in time to witness it for myself how people lived than. Just for a day or two, I'm far too pampered to be able to survive there.... :-D

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 17, 2014 at 9:28 AM

    A beautiful poem and you are lucky to have someone that can hand down those memories to you. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChristineApril 17, 2014 at 10:45 AM

    I so enjoy reading your family stories. I had one great-grandma still alive when I was young. I am so grateful for the time I had to spend at her house.
    Do you have any of her rag rugs?

    ReplyDelete
  5. JennaApril 17, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    The picture and the poem are such treasures. I was lucky enough to have six grandparents (two steps) plus five great-grandparents alive when I was a child. I need to take the time to write down memories while people still have them.

    ReplyDelete

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