***July 4, 1894...My grandmother's birthday***

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Today I honor her memory...

Her parents saw, and lived, the American Dream...

They came from Sweden, met and married here...

She was their oldest child...

She was a bright, hard-working, motivated lady...

She and her husband raised their six children on a farm outside Chicago...

They had a pump in the kitchen...

She would kill and clean chickens for their meals...

She baked bread every week...

And still had time to go into Chicago for concerts...

She lived through the World Wars, and the Depression...

She did not let adversity shrink her soul...

My Grandmother! How much I still miss her, and her example!

I wonder what she would say if she could see what's happened to her beloved country...

Her birthday, today...

I salute her!

[underpants]

1. ❤️ I love stories like this.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. That's so inspiring, CaliforniaPeggy!

Your Grandmother sounds like a treasure!

I, too, think of family and friends who are no longer with us and wonder what they’d think of the last administration and the severe polarization of our country now.

TY for sharing her story with us!

[3catwoman3]

3. My maternal grandmother was also a July 4th baby, 1899.

She left home at 16 to go to nursing school. She met my grandfather, who was a dentist, when he was a patient in the hospital where she worked. He’d had an explosion in his dental lab, and had some bad facial burns.

They raised 4 kids - 3 daughters and a son. The oldest daughter, my mom, also went to nursing school, as did I. I have my grandmother’s nursing school diploma, from 1918. It was just sitting on a closet shelf in my mom’s house, not protected in any way. it is in nearly perfect condition, and now hangs on a wall above my 1918 upright piano, in a antique looking frame. I treasure it.

I also have her engagement and wedding rings, which I wear on my right ring finger. Each is engraved with my grandparents’ initials, and the dates on which my grandfather presented them to my grandmother. As family lore goes, she thought she was getting the engagement ring for Christmas, but he fooled her and gave her a sweater instead, and she had to pretend she wasn’t disappointed. He gave her the diamond a few days later on New Year’s Eve.

For reasons unknown, my grandmother gave these rings to her third daughter when I was a young adult. I had rather thought that they might come to me. Some years later, that aunt decided I should have them, even tho she had 2 daughters of her own. After making sure she really meant it, I happily accepted these heirlooms.

Being the 3rd generation of nurses, the older child of the oldest child, and an April baby with diamonds as my birthstone, I feel like these treasures are on the proper hand.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Thank you for your wonderful story, my dear 3catwoman3!

It's lovely.

And I agree about how you're wearing them is so very appropriate!

[AndyS]

5. Something in my eye . . .

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Mine too. Thank you, Andy. . .

[MLAA]

6. Wonderful woman and you inherited her genes!

What was her first name CalPeg?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I sure did!

Her first name was Edith.

[MLAA]

13. Did you grow up near her?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. Until I was 8 years old, I did. nt

[MLAA]

16. Many of my favorite memories were at my grandparents home.

[wendyb-NC]

7. She sounds like an amazing individual

I love your telling of her life. A blessing and a hero in your growing up, that has stayed in your life. Thank you, Peggy for sharing her, with us.

[Lonestarblue]

8. What a lovely memory and tribute to your grandmother.

The resilience of people like her and their determination to make good lives is what truly has made the US the country it is.

[Permanut]

11. A salute to CaliforniaPeggy's Grandmother..

Great memories

[wryter2000]

12. Yay for you and your grandmother

My father was July 5, 1900. He was no spring chicken when I was born, and I was the oldest.

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Her loving and heroic example lives on.

Through her children and granddaughter and all the lives she touched.

Thank you for sharing your treasured memories with us, our Dear CaliforniaPeggy.

[electric_blue68]

17. She sounds quite Wonderful. 👍

[JanMichael]

18. If you don't mind me asking what year did she pass?

All of my grandparents were generally born between 1915 and 1924. One grandma born in 1922 died in 2022 one-month shy of 100 years.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. I was trying to remember . . . I think it was 1969 or 1970. She was in her 60's.

She'd been in an accident.