We loved going through the attic. Grandma had real pretty hats and bonnets when she was younger which were stored there, along with dresses and shawls which lent themselves easily to costume parades and dress up affairs. We spent every Christmas there as long as they occupied the home place. We never had a Christmas tree but always had nice gifts. I particularly remember the last doll and doll buggy and a glass door cupboard from grandpa. I still had the doll when we moved here, but when it drew dampness from the basement I finally disposed of it.

[margin] Aunt Mary set a place at table for mama that yr-

I remember so well the Christmas after my mother died on November 25, 1912. At Christmas time Nitha was very ill in the Eastman Hospital - Methodist- with a ruptured appendix and we didn't think she was going to make it either. We went to grandpa's as usual and my dad took food in to Nitha although he knew she couldn't eat it. That was a really gloomy Christmas day. After weeks of illness Nitha finally recovered. That was the year dad gave Edith and I muffs for Christmas. He hid them behind a door in the bedroom and we found them as they were in a rather conspicuous place. That cured me of ever looking for a Christmas gift even if I knew where to find it, for all of the surprise of knowing what was in the package was spoiled.

Grandma very seldom left home. When she did she was carried on a straight chair to the buggy or car and lifted into it and the same procedure took place when she reached her destination and was repeated when she was ready to go home. Grandpa and dad were in the barbershop in Castleton one time and remarked that grandmother was going to Aunt Mary's (Shelby Sutton's mother) the next day which she did. When we took her home the next evening we found someone who had been in the barber shop and overheard the conversation had helped themselves to a truck load of grandma's possessions. They had taken pillows, hand woven coverlets of long vintage dated in the corner which were prized family possessions, all the lovely quilts she had, feather beds, rugs, etc. We were all heart sick and although we were pretty sure we knew who did it, was never able to prove it and never recovered any of the articles. I don't remember that Grandma ever left the house again until she went to Aunt Mary's to make her home there.

Grandpa went to Florida for several months each winter and was there when my Grandmother died in March of 1921 the year after Russell and I were married. I was never very proud of him as he decided there was too much cold weather ahead for him and he decided not to come home at that time. Of course Grandmother had been an invalid for so long and their interests were not the same. He always provided for her needs abundantly but left the responsibilities in later years to my father and Aunt Mary.

          end of part four

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