Uncle Bill and Aunt Maggie Richardson

 

I have heard about Uncle Bill and Aunt Maggie Richardson all my life. Uncle Bill was Grandpa Toad's brother (8-9 years).

I have heard Mom and Grandma Laura and Aunt Betty talk about them, and Mom and Ginger, and Ginger has told me a few things about them. Aunt Maggie died in 1960 and Uncle Bill died in 1962, so I was pretty young when they died, 5 and 7 respectively. I'm sure I've seen them, probably been at their house, but don't remember them at all. I wish I did remember them. They sound like they were good good people. Another fact of being born later into the family.

Ginger remembers them well, of course. She says she used to go home with them and stay a week at a time. 

I knew their daughters, Estelle and  Eula Mae, or I should say, I knew their names and faces when I saw them. I didn't really know how we were related until years later. I think they were some of my mom's favorite cousins, anyway, it seemed to me they were. I remember them coming to dinners at Grandma and Grandpa's house, a lot of those big dinners we spread out on tables in the yard because it wouldn't all fit in Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

When Estelle and Eula Mae were there, they and Aunt Betty and Mom just talked and laughed and cut up and cut up and laughed and talked. I can remember it so well, they just had a wonderful time together.

Anyway. I love to look at Google Maps. I was looking at them tonight and thought I'd look at where Monger Cemetery was. I've been there several times and have looked at the headstones of my Richardson relatives, and one of two relatives from Dad's side of the family. It's a beautiful little cemetery beside the old Monger Church/School and it's being taken care of by someone and it looks really nice. Lots of walnut trees (Grandpa Toad and Grandma Laura are resting under a big walnut tree).

On the map, I was noticing that one of the nearby roads to Monger Cemetery was Johnson Road. Johnson was the maiden name of my Great Grandmother, Grandpa Toad's mother. Another road nearby was Reed Road, which was Aunt Maggie's maiden name.

It made me feel connected somehow, can't even explain it, but there was those family names right there on a map, and here I am, looking at them and recognizing who they were probably named after. It's kind of a weird feeling.

I know one time Ginger and I went to Monger Cemetery, and I was driving and didn't know where I was going, and it had changed a lot since Ginger had been there. I missed the road to go to the cemetery and took the next road. We thought we were going right until we came to an old steel bridge. We went across it and Ginger said "I don't think this is the right way to go to the cemetery, but I think I remember going across this bridge to go to Uncle Bill and Aunt Maggie's house".

I'd like to go up there and drive the roads and imagine where they might have lived, might have walked on the same roads, all that stuff. Just feel like I was in the same place my relatives were years and years ago. 

Maybe I can talk Bob into driving around those roads, or one of the girls, I know any one of them would go with me. David also, but he's pretty far away to say, hey, come down and drive around with me! haha

I need to see Aunt Betty.