I thought the opener for this post was perfect. Above is the barn my Great-Grandfather James Madison Gillespie built by hand on he and his wife, Jenny Turley’s farm in Alum Creek, WV. The land has been in the family since that time and the adjacent land is being developed with fantabulous houses. The time has come to sell the land which is bitter sweet for most of the family! Our cousin Lois decided to hold a memory day for the first day of the reunion. We got to go back to the farm that Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jenny built. The kids loved to imagine being alive in 1905 when it was built along with the farmhouse beside the original log cabin where my grandmother was born. Its really sad to see the overgrown land since Grandpa Jim kept the 90+ acres like a beautiful lawn. Some older folks from Alum Creek came to talk with the kids…i.e. the people 50 years and younger about the “most beautiful place in the world” as it was known for years to all the locals!
Cousin Lois, every summer, lived at the farm and would sneak in the hay loft with my Aunt Jane and eat tomatoes they had snatched from the garden all day…what a life…I yearn for those days!
Amazingly, this area was completely clear in those days and looked like a hilly football field…a century later it is a forest!
We hiked up to the family cemetery which has the original owners of the land…our great-great-grandfather and grandmother, Albert Street and Mary Ann Gillispie.
In addition to the patriarchs, my Great-Grandpa Jim and many other family are there. Most impressionable on the children were the numerous children and my great aunt, their great great aunt Frieda who died as a little baby. I remember being little with my Grandma VanCamp looking at pictures of that sweet little baby in a casket and feeling sad that she died so young! My grandma used to always get sad when she would talk of it and here @ 33 years old, I got to see where the precious sweet baby was laid. I am honored to look forward to meeting her when I enter heaven! The boys talk of her now that she’ll be waiting for them too…many, many years from now!
“Thy sweet smiles are not forgotten”
I thank God daily for having all of our children here on Earth with us for now!
The kids just gravitated to her gravesite although they have been taught many times that she is in heaven with the Lord!
I hope Grandpa Jim saw his sweet great great grandbabies showing respect to his sweet baby as he holds her in his arms above!
Once we were finished at the farm, we headed to the Lion’s Club for a delectable dinner provided by yours truly and no one got food poisoning haha, followed by some play!
The Georgia Globetrotters
Finally, caught Ryan!
Weee, this is fun…
…um, no it's not…
not quite ready for the swing!
And another frog.
Before heading back to the cabin, we took a little drive by my old house in South Hill. It seems exactly the same except that horrible Marshall flag in the front yard! I remember Amanda and me making up dances in the front yard/hill almost every night of the summer and Elizabeth breaking her foot catching lightning bugs on the front curb the week before going to Jamaica! We were THE central spotlight location for the neighborhood too! Oh memories…love them, but I never want to go back to a time without Matty!
I forgot to take a pic of the house in So. Charleston, but you’re not missing anything. It has not been taken care of like my Dad did when we lived in it!
We were all ready for bed early and knew there was lots of rest needed for the BIG reunion the next day…
…but not before one more pic of Mikey!
Nice necklace.
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