Ava Bell

Ava Bell was my Granny W. She was born in 1897 and didn't get married until her early twenties which made her an "old" bride in that day and age. She also married a younger man by two years. She had eight children without ever stepping foot into a hospital. Her youngest child was my mother who was born when Ava Bell was 41 years old.

Look at that pretty dress and those shoes!! This picture was taken sometime during the 30's when my grandparents moved from Arkansas to Turkey, Texas, because there were better jobs there during the Depression years. Look at their two oldest sons being pranksters in the background. Don't you love those caps?! You can't see the details, but Grandpa is wearing a plaid tie.

Granny W. was one of the most influential people in my life. She was a devout Christian and was one of those lovely people who never had a bad word to say about anyone. No matter what a person had said or done, Granny always found something positive to say about them. She had her share of hardships and sorrow in her life, but she was rarely unhappy. She didn't talk about her troubles, she talked about her blessings. Her philosophy was that no matter how bad things were, there was always so much to be thankful for.

Ava Bell loved birds. Cardinals were her favorite. She would make an extra pan of cornbread to crumble up and feed "her" birds. She could identify birds by their songs. The pages of her bird book were as frayed and worn as the pages of her Bible. She also loved flowers and her house was always surrounded by a profusion of blooms.

Granny was a great cook. She canned vegetables, made jelly, baked bread and pastries, made sweet and dill pickles, canned a vegetable soup mix that was out of this world good and cooked so many other delicious foods. I remember her doing all this with a gas cook stove. My mom remembers when Granny did it all with a wood cook stove. Granny also made sauerkraut and she had a little Daisy churn that she used to make butter. Her kitchen was always full of wonderful things to eat. My mom and I have often talked about how all of us bring food to our big family holiday dinners, but when Granny was alive and we had those dinners at her house, she did all the cooking. Her daughters and daughters-in-law cleaned up and washed the dishes, but Ava Bell was The Cook.

Ava Bell was a very modest woman. See how she made sure her knees were covered before I took this picture? I can just hear her fussing at me for letting people see this picture because her slip is showing just a bit. When Granny got her Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs in the mail, she would sit down to look through them with a pen in hand. She didn't put an 'x' by things she wanted, she colored in the midriffs of the models wearing two-piece swimsuits. If a skirt was really short, she might add an ink ruffle to it. If I wore a dress that Granny considered too short and too low cut in the neckline, she would politely compliment me on my nice, wide "belt".

Oh, there are so many other things I could tell you about Ava Bell. Her life is as full of intricate pieces as the the beautiful quilts she stitched by hand. But it is late tonight and I have school tomorrow so I will have to post more about her another time.