Four Generations in One Photo x 2
Not every kid born in the 1990’s can tout that she has a photograph with her Great-Grandmother. In fact, not every kid born in the 90’s can say she has a four-generation photo comprised of herself, mother, Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother. As a matter of fact, I have two four-generation photographs.
When I was growing up, it seemed to be rare that any of my friends knew a Great-Grandparent. More so, some of them hadn’t even had the luck of knowing a Grandparent. Now, rewind to the 1960’s when my Mom was a kid… she knew three of her Great-Grandparents and one of them lived to be 97 years old. He died when my Mom was 17.
I wish on everything I am that I could have had my Great-Grandmother until I was 17, but unfortunately she passed away on October 2nd, 2001, when I was 8 years old. The Great-Grandmother I’m talking about is my direct maternal line Great-Grandmother, Anna Elizabeth (Thompson) Sandefur.
You'll notice me make mention of my Nana a lot on this blog and on my genealogy page on Facebook... because she's the entire reason I got into doing genealogy going on twenty-two years ago now (in the year 2000.)
Nana, as all of her grandkids and great-grandkids called her, was born on August 18th, 1916, in the Smith Mills area of Henderson County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of John Rowan Thompson, a farmer who ended up making a bit of money in the oil industry, and Mary Janella Nally, a homemaker who ruled her home with a tender but firm touch.
Nana was the 7th child of 8 born to John and Janella. In fact, the 5th child, Vannie Louise, had just died of membranous croup on November 19th, 1915. It probably was just after that, that Janella got pregnant with my Nana.
It was on August 25th, 1933, that Nana became Mrs. Henry Lloyd Sandefur — and it was indeed a shotgun wedding. They eloped to Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois for the wedding and Nana lied about her age. Eight months later, Nana gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Carolyn. Two sons -- Donald "Don" and William "Buddy" came afterward and then the next girl — my Grandmother, Glynda Jane.
Grandma was born at home when they were living on Letcher Street, here in Henderson, on Friday, June 13th. 1941. She was delivered by the late Dr. Walter O’Nan — the father of the doctor who delivered me almost 52 years later, Dr. William O’Nan.
Now my Mom, she was the first of only two children born to my Grandparents -- Jady & Glynda. Mom was brought into the world at about 2:30 AM on January 8th, 1963, and her younger brother followed two years and three days later. Unfortunately, we lost my Uncle on July 5th, 2014.. he was only 49 years old.
The two photographs I have that are four generations were taken roughly Christmas 1993 (when I was ten months old) and then the summer of 1996, I believe, when I was 3 years old. It *might* have been summer of 1997, when I was 4 years old.
The photograph from Christmas of '93, being a typical kid... I had taken to it with an ink pen. There's a wonderful group on Facebook called "Random Acts of Photo Restoration" and they helped me edit the photo back to its near original glory. (Note for all you with kids out there....hide your family photos. Hide them until your kids are about 13 years old lol.)
You can't even tell that Nana's face, all over Grandma's body, and even some over my face and my Mom's face had pen scribbles, can you? They did an awesome job! Kudos to that Facebook group!
The above photograph was taken in the backyard of my Grandparents house in front of their little 'barn' building. I actually just found another picture like this one but a little bit closer to us the other day. I knew the photo existed, but had forgotten what photo album it had been slipped into. So here it is for y'all to see.
All of these photos were taken at my Grandparents house.. That house, even to this day, is my favorite place in the world. Sadly, it was sold at auction in August of 2015. I drive past it multiples times, every single day. Sometimes I just want to pull into the driveway and sit there a while. Reminisce on being a kid, on better times. I miss my Great-Grandmother, I miss my Grandparents, I miss my Uncle. I miss all of us being a family.
They always say when the Grandparents pass away, the family splinters apart...that's no lie and no exaggeration. I don't talk to my cousins whatsoever now. I can't tell you hardly anything going on in their lives. One cousin makes the newspaper fairly often for her work with the Habitat for Humanity. I do speak to my youngest cousin... he's a Dad now. He sends us pictures of his baby boy fairly often.
Well, that's the gist of my favorite photographs.. Photographs speak a thousand words and my how I wish I could hear the voices of my Great-Grandma and my Grandma again. I'm tearing up just as I type this. What I wouldn't give to sit on a bench and chat with both of them again for a while. Don't you just wish heaven had a telephone? Or visiting hours? Pack up a picnic and spend a Sunday afternoon up there..
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