From before I was five years old I lived with brothers and sisters in the house beside my Father’s fourth and largest stone quarry, while my parents along with baby brother Bugs lived on a farm seven miles away.

At this tender age I learned fast that I had to lookout for myself. My sisters Fanny, Bobbie and Edna were all busy doing their own thing. So it took my older sister Mable to look after me along with my brother Ernie who was just two years older than me.

My first year of school, while my parents and little brother Bugs (Howard) were spending the winter in California, to keep me warm walking to school in the snow Mabel would put a big sweater of hers on me, roll up the sleeves to my little wrists, lap the front of the sweater  over to fit up close around me then she took a big, long knit scarf and wrapped that around my head, neck and shoulders and all around my little body to keep me warm.

Miss Beatrice Drake, my first grade teacher would wrap me all up again to walk home the end of the school day. She was also my second grade teacher and a real sweetheart. I really adored her.

A little side line story:  In miss Drake’s second grade class she ask us all to write our numbers 1 to 100 and see who finishes first. I’m looking all around the class for someone to whisper to but I see much to my dismay that every one but me are writing as fast as they could.  Well……..I guess maybe I should start writing my numbers also. OK….so here goes. And what do you know I finished first. I was as surprised by that as everyone else.

Now back to the drawing board:

I didn’t have a winter coat until second grade when my sister Geneva, who was married, cut down an old dark blue coat of some adult and made a coat for me.

Of course I wore long underwear with long stockings pulled up overtop and brown hightop shoes. And as I trudged along through the snow up to the corner store and turning on toward school I did keep warm thanks to my substitute mother, my sister Mabel.

The above picture is of Mabel while she still lived at home.

By the time she met and later married Mitchell Eastman I had grown up enough to take care of myself although I was still only a child. All through the years we remained best of friends.

Mabel and me at Rockhold reunion

Her last few years she was in a nursing home in Maysville and each time t flew up from Florida where I lived I would go visit her there at the nursing home. I found if I would send her cards often she then got a lot of good attention from the girls who worked there. In fact one of the girls a few times purchased a greeting card and wrote me a note from Mabel on the card. They pinned my cards up so she could continue to see them.

I mailed her many greeting cards often and would fill a large Christmas sock with gifts and send her for Christmas. I included box of my home made fudge that she loved. My brother Bugs would take it home from Florida just before Christmas and he personally took it down to the nursing home and gave her. It was the least I could do for her for her kind heartedly being my substitute Mother and taking care of me when I was very little.

Through the years we always remained the best of friends until she died at age 98. This story is my tribute to MY WONDERFUL SUBSTITUTE MOTHER.

The above picture appeared in the Marysville Tribune news paper Marysville Ohio.

FRF❤️