Georgia England

This blog serves two purposes.  It updates you on my weekend plans and also gives you a bit of history on an American life.

 

My wife's name is Sheila.  Her mother died in 1957 when Sheila was not yet two years old.  As a result, Sheila has always been close to her biological grandmother, Georgia England.  This blog will tell you about "Grandma England."  You may recall Sheila's step mother, Christine, died recently.  Today, Grandma England died of what we used to call "old age".

 

Georgia England was born in rural Arkansas in about 1917.  I'm uncertain of her age, but it was before cars came to that part of Arkansas.  In fact, electricity was almost certainly also not available, nor was refrigeration.  At that time people either traveled on horseback or by horse and buggy or they walked.  Rural school children were considered well educated after completing the eighth grade and rarely attended high school.  More frequently, they only spent 2-4 years in school.  At age ten, their help was needed on the family farms, so they stayed home.

 

Georgia knew how to live in that situation.  She could killed and cook a chicken, including the necessary steps between those two.  She grew a large garden most of her life.  She told the story of her husband coming home one day and complaining about having to eat beans one too many times. She became angry at him and grabbed his plate from in front of him and threw the food into the yard.  But they had so little food available she quickly went out side, picked up the beans off the ground before the chickens could eat them and washed them off for his supper.

 

She had several children, both boys and girls, including a pair of paternal twins.  Those people have all grown to be grandparents themselves, giving Georgia a host of grand children and great grand children.  She may have as many as 50 descendents.

 

As a country woman, I first met Georgia in about 1987.  She was already a grandmother several times over and well loved by her family.  A very generous person, she constantly worked on making quilts with some of her friends.  She often hosted meals for her family members, who had built her a nice house to live in.  This modern house was much better than the homes she had had in earlier years.  Her husband had died by that time, so I never met him.  I would meet her yearly at family reunions, where the large extended family hosted a large meal on a Saturday on Memorial Day weekend.

 

In her late years, Georgia still drove her car by herself.  She would drive 400 miles to Dallas or 600 miles to Knoxville to visit her sister or children (roughly 600 - 1000 km), by herself!  Like everyone else, she eventually had to depend on others to drive her.

 

I would have to say that if I made a list of the top ten friendliest people I know, Georgia would easily make that list!