Our Family Story

Friday, September 5, 2008

My Grandmother as a Young Girl

Thought I would share a photo my mother gave me recently. The girl standing in the middle in the back is my grandmother, Iva Myrtle, known to her friends and family as Myrtle or Myrt. She was my Mom's mother, and I never got to meet her, but I know I take after her in many ways -- loving to read, loving to write, keeping letters and newspaper clippings, bubble gum wrappers from dates, making up stories for the kids, and a host of other things.

Seated in the center are Samuel Lewis Hook and his wife Eler Elijah Blisset Hook, for whom my Mother was named. In the back left is Timmy Lee Hook (known to us as Uncle Tim), my Mamaw (Myrtle Roberts to be), and Lena Luney Florence (known to us as Aunt Florence -- Aunt Florence married a Dowell, but as far as we know it was a different line of Dowells, no relation to my Dad). The little boy in the center is Shelton Coleman (known as Uncle Shel), and the smallest boy, on the left in front, is Raymond Estil (Uncle Estil).

I can remember Uncle Tim and I remember going to visit him and his wife, Aunt Effie in Hardinsburg. The house they lived in was (and still is) next to the library, and I remember their porch was covered in red tile. I never knew the others, but I remember Uncle Estil's wife, my Aunt Annie Mae. It was her house that was destroyed in the April 3, 1974 tornado that I wrote about in April.

I think my grandmother was around 12 or 13 here, although she could have been as old as 14. Mom says in a lot of her pictures she looked older than she was. She was a pretty little thing, wasn't she? In most pictures of my Great-Grandfather Hook he has white hair and a mass of white whiskers, but in this photo he is quite the handsome devil, isn't he? My mother was named after this grandmother, Eler, and her other grandmother, Frances Roberts. My Eler Beth is named after both of her grandmothers too. I hope it's a tradition that will continue.