Remembering Mother

I loved my Mother dearly and she was an affectionate, loving mother. Her early life was good until her father died when she was 13 years old. I don't think she had a really hard time financially, but emotionally there were scars. Her mother was ill and her sisters (9 & 12 years younger) went to live with Grandparents in a different state and she went to a boarding school.

My brother was born when she was 17 years old and she was a single mother. She trained to be a nurse (her Dad was a Dr and there were other Dr's in the family). She became a Practical Nurse (todays LVN).

In 1933 she, my brother and a cousin traveled to Southern California where she met my Dad, a Sailor, and they married after a whirlwind courtship. I wish I had asked more questions about their trip across the USA.

Give their face a place

Women's History Month:

Inspired by the Give Their Face a Place campaign, here are some of my family's women.





My Mother at my Wedding. She was in the hospital by the time I came back from the honeymoon. Her cancer had returned and she died the next July.

Uterine Cancer discovered Jan 1962 - surgery and radiation. I was Married June 1964 and she died July 1965.












Ruth Weddle about the time she married my Dad















Ruth Weddle as a child





























Verda Strunk Weddle Jeffers my maternal Grandmother. My Grandfather, Herbert Cain Weddle died in 1926. Verda was left with 3 daughters the youngest was only 1 year old. She had health problems and the two youngest daughters went to live with their paternal grandparents who lived in Mississippi. They stayed there for several years and didn't want to go to live with her when she remarried and was able to care for them. The youngest did return to live with her about 10 years later.

Verda did remarry and had a boy and a girl. I remember my mother telling me she visited her in 1937 and Grandma came out holding a new baby which was a total surprise. She hadn't told my mother because she was embarrassed to have a baby at the ripe old age of 42.