Francis Adele Means.
Often in the last years of her life, Mom asked me to retrieve precious items from upstairs that she could no longer reach, the stairs an obstacle for advanced osteoarthritis.
“There is a big, white plastic bag by the nightstand in my bedroom. The contents are valuable. I want to see it.”
I retrieved said plastic bag. Mom delicately pulled the contents onto her lap, one by one.
“These photos can never be lost. They contain your history.”
I helped her sort through the portraits and read the meticulous writing on the back. I had never seen them before, never knew that the Means family were descendents of an ancient Scottish clan, the Menzies from county Argyll. The portraits were a gift from my grandmother Harriet’s cousin Grace to family members, Christmas of 1924. She sent these portraits to my great-grandfather William, my grandmother Harriet, and my mother Louise Johnson Rier. Most survived at the ancestors’ home where I grew up.
Mom passed me the portrait of Grace’s mother, Francis Adele. Grace and Mom both shared her middle name. “Look what she wrote to me on the back of her mother’s photo,” Mom said. “I was only four years old.”
“To Louise Adele Johnson from grown up cousin Grace.”
…“She was so fond of her little brother, Louise’s granddaddy that Louise must always love her and keep her picture renewed when it may fade after years. So her memory will be held sacred and coming generations may know and reverence her dear face.”
The same portrait was sent to my great-grandfather William.
Voices of Ancestors 