Needy Neighbors - That's Us!

Hi,

It has been in the high 50's today, a real taste of spring! I have rested all week and am planning on heading back to work tomorrow. I still have a wheeze, but I understand that it just takes time to get over.

We are the neediest neighbors! What would we do without neighbors that will come on a moments notice and bail us out of trouble? And bailing is what was needed this spring day. Snow kept falling last month, and had no place to go. It was pushed into large piles. Now, as it melts, it has drained into our basement, and our front walk was a river! Our neighbors came and helped chip away ice in the yard to make a path for the melting water that was accumulating out front, carried ruined rugs out of the basement, and assisted with general water control! All working together disaster has been averted. Fans and the dehumidifer are running in the basement, and Keith is still running a drainage hose from the front of the house to try to divert some of the melting snow.
It will freeze again tonight, and we will start over tomorrow. But in the meantime, we are grateful for the help our neighbors once again gave. We can't do a lot of physical things to assist them, but we can watch their dog when they are on vacation, bake some cookies, and tell them how grateful we are for their help.

Stay warm and dry!
love
Aunt Betty

A Day of Rest

It's a day of rest for me. The feeling that jagged rocks were poking out at my back and piercing all the way through was not a dream, or from sleeping the wrong way. A trip to the Urgent Care Sunday morning confirmed a scattered pneumonia to go along with a bad case of bronchitis. I hesitated even going to get it checked, as I know that most things in the cold and virus family just have to run their course, but I was pretty miserable. I've only been on the medication for two days, but I am already starting to feel better.

My Cousin Tony called and walking me through the "indelicate" procedure of "hacking." Hot soup to break up the phlem, and then - force the hacking. He had me laughing on the phone so hard that I didn't need the soup or to force it! And that, says Tony, is the best thing for me to do.

Keith has contributed by passing on the hospital incentive spirometer that he used to help keep his lungs open after his last surgery. Now, it is his turn to tell me to breath a little deeper!

Jessica dug out the old vaporizer and supplied a cool mist, and ran the extra errands.

My supervisor said, "Please don't come in today." - "Or tomorrow!" The doctor told me that after two days on the antibiotics I could return to work. That would be Sunday and today, Monday. I'll take Tuesday too, and give myself the extra rest - and they will be really assured the medication is working!

My pastor called and assured me of the prayers of the church. And to remind me that that I have an article due for the monthly newsletter by the end of the week or before if possible. But no pressure....


I'm doing a few chores and then resting, reading, praying and enjoying my quiet time. The rocks still feel like that they are sticking in my back - but not all the way through to my stomach. Maybe it is time to try Cousin Tony's "Soup and Hacking" remedy!

Back to Work

Keith packed his briefcase and headed back to work this morning. Six weeks into his healing he still tires easily, but is eager to get back to work and his normal routine.

I am thankful for a day off from work. President's Day is a holiday for the city where I am currently working as a temp. I need to spend some time updating the church website, preparing for a meeting at church tonight, and cleaning/cooking for the week ahead.

Jessica is home today too, and while she will take some time to study before class tonight, she is going to run some errands with me this afternoon. We are all out of the big 50 lb bags of cracked corn that feed our deer. I don't want to see them stand at the place we feed them outside the familyroom window tonight, staring in, wondering why we haven't fed them.

Hop-a-long, the young doe we have so named because she has a leg that is broken and just dangles, has picked up speed, and is holding her own, running as fast as the others through the snow covered field. The young bucks are getting the new nubby antlers. Despite the 0 degree days and heavy snows we have had, they run through the woods, jumping and playing.

The wind is blowing and it is about 12 degrees. The sun is sparkling on the snow. I will keep my eyes open for the little red fox Keith saw last week. It's time to get busy. I give thanks for the gift of a new day, good health, Keith being well enough to return to work, and I always give thanks for you too.

love,

Aunt Betty

Happy Valentines Day!

Greetings,

I'm celebrating a beautiful sunny day! Temperatures rose to about a high of 14 today, but the wind is not bad. We had a bald eagle perching from a tall tree in our yard for a couple of days last week, on the lookout for some fast food. (Fast running mice, rabbits, birds, squirrels that come to our house to eat the corn and seed we put out.) The season finds us all healthy as we bundle up in our thick winter coats to go out. The Mississippi River is ice covered this time of the year, and there are no barge whistles drifting into the air. The bald eagles, often 200 or more, gather around the lock and dam just a little way down the river from Muscatine to take advantage of the open water fishing opportunities.

We are still corn feeding the herd of backyard deer that come trampling through the deep snow, hungry, and grateful (I think) for dinner. Come spring I will cover my budding flowers with nets to discourage them from dinning on flowers al la king! Watching them eat outside the family room window, sharing the buffet with the birds, rabbits, squirrels, and sometimes racoons, is our main entertainment!

Keith plans on returning to work on Monday, February 18th. He is still low on stamina, but gradually getting his strength back. I've been taking various temp jobs and saving money for traveling to Ohio and Eastern Kentucky come spring. Jessica is still deep in her studies - with Law and Marketing (no math!!!) this semester. She juggles work/school/church/choir and tries to have a little down time on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

A highlight for us this month was getting to sing at our local Art Museum on the evening of February 7th. We did a mother/daughter duet concert with our neighbor, Tammy Ales. Tammy plays a 12 string guitar and makes beautiful music for us to sing to. They were featuring some local musicians, and it was a real delight for us to be included in that.

Have a delightful Valentines Day! Stay warm and healthy. I send you my love,

Aunt Betty

Mary (Watson) Wooldridge

b. Feb 1860
d. 1910

Married: Robert Wooldridge: September 7, 1877, Elliott County, KY

Maude Lewis would have been close to 10 when her Grandma Mary passed. Maude carried her grandma's name, in the Maude MARY Lewis. Maude Mary was Martha (Wooldridge) Lewis's first daughter, and it must have seemed just right to give her daughter her mother's name. Robert and Mary were both born in Kentucky. Robert's dad, Samuel Wooldridge, b. abt 1805, came from Virgina. His mother, Lucy Penn Hannah was born in Kentucky in 1816.

Maude Mary Lewis Fannin

Granny Fannin at Betty (Fannin) Fyffe's wedding, August 9, 1974. Both of my grandmothers were living and able to be there!

The "Old Place"

There was still snow on the ground when we climbed up the hill through the yellow Easters to walk around the Old Place. This was the home of Martha and Enoch Lewis after the flood of 1927 washed their farm away. They camped out on this hill for a summer and fall while building this cabin from old barn timbers. I've been told about this place, but can't remember all the details. I'll try to ask my Dad when I go home this spring. The land is now owned by Minnie (Wooldridge) Adkins - and Herman Peters.

George and Mary Magdeline "Polly" Mumbower Fannin

This photo is from the Elliott County, Kentucky Gen Web.

Flat Gap, Kentucky

Aunt Ruby (Fyffe) and Uncle Hobert Salyers, grandson, daughter-in-law Tina

Aunt Ruby called just before Christmas. She talks a bit slower since her stroke, but each word was clear. But she is WALKING! Her praises to God are great! "I want you to come and hear my story," she said. This wasn't just a casual invitation, but a real call to set aside time, make the trip, and sit down by her side and let her tell her story. "What story?" I asked. I was busy with the holiday planning and had a dozen things on my mind. She cleared my mind up when she said, "How God talked to me." "He spoke to me, and if that wasn't enough, he told me to move my foot." Aunt Ruby heard an audible voice, moved her foot, and it responded! Keith was getting ready to go in for a repair surgery, which we were all dreading. "He talked to me, and he can talk to you too!" she said. Aunt Ruby knew that God was so close by, and gave us great encouragement.

Jessica and I have added a day to our Memorial Day trip in May. We are going to answer Aunt Ruby's call to COME AND HEAR. We will gladly sit by her side, and drink in every word. For if God talked to her, and she shares it, we will hear from God too.

Check back after Memorial Day and I'll tell you about our visit to Flat Gap, Kentucky. Hopefully, Uncle Hobert will play his beautiful music for us while we are there, and maybe Aunt Ruby will feel like singing for us as well.

love you,

Aunt Betty

"Decoration Day" Reservations Made!!!!!

You need to get reservations early for the Memorial Day Family Reunions! In Morehead to Grason, Sandy Hook, West Liberty and Paintsville, and other eastern Kentucky towns, the hotels fill up quickly with family returning home to honor the memories of their ancesters. Jessica and I have reservations at the Laurel Gorge Inn, Sandy Hook, Kentucky: Phone: (606) 738-5515, for the Memorial Day reunion.

Many of our extended family will gather on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill and partake in the memorial services and later large dinner and visiting time down at the Isonville School. We will put our flowers on the beds of our loved ones, sing some songs, and have a short service. It is very important to climb the hill if at all possible rather than catch a ride in one of the four-wheelers taking the ill, elderly and our-of-shape to the top. As a child we were given the impression that those that could no longer climb the hill were apt to be planted on it the next year!

Some have been planted in our recent history, and the grief is still fresh. Others we know only through the stories of our parents, passed down from their parents. Following the service a group of cousins will walk down the hill and up a small hollow and put flowers on Dick's grave too.

Sometimes we have to wade through brambles and weeds to get to Dick's grave, and other times, someone who lives in the area goes ahead, and clears it ahead of time. That is always appreciated as this is copperhead country. Our children ask "Why is Dick's grave so far away from the others?" "Why is Dick buried here alone?" We answer from our oral history, include some actual history, and lay our flowers on his grave. We may sing Amazing Grace as we remember this former slave that is such a part of our family legacy.

Have you heard Ralph Stanley's CD, Mountain Preacher's Child ? A friend gave me a copy, and the songs bring back so many memories, especially the one about "Walking Up this Hill on Decoration Day." When we were very small we went often "back to Kentucky" on Friday nights after Dad got off work at the Delco Products in Dayton, Ohio. "Decoration Day" weekend meant we would get to climb the big hill where all the moss covered tombstones grew out of the ground.

The hill our family climbed most often was the one in the Newcombe Valley of Isonville, Kentucky, called the "Ben Barker." A very steep hill, I would try to run a little, then stop and rest and look back at where my parents and grandparents were behind me. Before long, I would leave them all way behind, and I would be at the top, waiting for them to arrive. Daddy (Robert E. Fannin) often was chosen to preach on the hill up on the freshly built platform. It was a great honor. I would get restless sitting on the hard hand hewn benches, and Mom would let me go play. I would carefully walk among the beds of my ancesters and greet these great and great-great grandparents and extended family that our oral history made seem like a current presence in my life.

The Ben Barker is very full now. Our Uncle Marvin Fannin (son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin made land available up on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill where Great-Grandpa Rolly Fannin (son of Bryant and Sarah "Sally" (Watson) Fannin, and his son and our Great-Uncle, Clyde Fannin were buried, and resting alone. The area of graves has expanded to include Uncle Ralph Fannin ((son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin), our Aunt Grovie (daughter of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin, her first husband, Jay Eldridge, an infant grandchild of cousin Charlie Eldridge (son of Grovie (Fannin) and Jay Eldridge, and even our beloved Uncle Marvin himself. Most recently added was a precious little boy not quite six, little Travis Luke Eldridge, another grandchild of Cousin Charlie and his wife, Janey. Six year olds should not have to fight cancer.

We will partake in the oral traditions, share them with the younger generations, meet at the Isonville School for a wonderful potluck meal. "Walking up this Hill, on Decoration Day."

The "COLD" Season in Muscatine, Iowa

It's the January "cold" season. We are toasty warm inside our home, even while the temperatures dipped last week to about -10. The "cold" however did not pass us by, and we are in the midst of the coughing and sneezing sensations. For me, it is miserable enough, but just a common cold. For Keith however, each sneeze and cough reminds him that his abs are not made of steel, and the long incision from sturnam to belly button is still healing. AhhhhCHOOO!

"...he will pass away like a wild flower..." ex. from John 1:9-11

"They've all moved away," said the voice of a stranger
"To a beautiful land by the bright crystal sea"
Some beautiful day I'll meet 'em in heaven
Where no one will be a stranger to me.

Enoch and Martha Lewis

Enoch and Martha (Wooldridge) Lewis

Brothers, Lewis family

Robert Cecil, Perry Estill, Addie Emerson, and Herbert Bazil Lewis - Sons of Enoch and Martha (Wooldridge) Lewis (younger brother, Proctor Logan Lewis, is not in photo).

Family Visit, 1972

Uncle Delbert lived up the street from us on Vine Street in Fairborn, Ohio for a number of years, and we enjoyed having our cousins close by! Here are some of the family gathered. July, 1972: Top Photo

Front Row, L - R: Martha (Fannin) Sloas, Nola (Lewis) Charles, Maude (Lewis) Fannin, Minnie (Wooldridge) Adkins, Back Row, Viola (Bentley) Fannin, Maxine (Smith) Fannin, and Bertha (Carter) Fannin

Bottom Photo: Dayton Dave Sloas, Rolla Fannin, Ed Charles, Robert Fannin, Delbert Fannin, Back Row: Maude (Lewis) Fannin, Nola (Lewis) Charles, Viola Bentley Fannin,

1958 - 1959 - Memories of Jumping Up and Down on my Uncle Marvin

It was the custom as family members left their farms and headed for job opportunities in the cities for other family members to follow. Quite often they were welcomed into even the smallest of houses, and families naturally made-do.

Our home was small, yet, when my Dad's younger brother, Marvin Dale Fannin, came to stay for a while, he was welcomed with open arms and received as one of the family. Early memories are vague for me, but my Uncle Marvin couldn't have been more than in his late teens when I had so much fun jumping up and down on him.

While I'm sure that my big sister could fill in the gaps, I remember that Uncle Marvin was at our home and trying to sleep. We loved our Uncle Marvin so much. He would play games with us, and sing to us. Uncle Marvin had played with us, and now was tired. He wanted to get some sleep. But as a little child, I was still wide awake, and wanted to play. Uncle Marvin was gentle and kind, and I was so used to him horsing around with us, that I couldn't believe that he was really done playing with me. While the older two wandered away, I just couldn't stop. Uncle Marvin lay on the fold out couch bed with me jumping up and down by and on him. He would protest, and that seemed to just fuel me to pester him more. Even his protest was done in love for a very young niece.

It is just a piece of a memory. I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. But even by that time I already knew that my Uncle Marvin was somebody very special.

The Lewis Family

All the records I have seen shows the Lewis family making their way to the New World from Wales, settling first in Penn's Colony. Quakers, they brought their faith with them and took part in the leadership of the Meeting House.

Down through the ages it has appeared to me that religion and faith plays a large role even now in the lives of many of the Lewis descendants.

My dad and his younger brother, Marvin, were greatly influenced by his maternal grandparents, Enoch and Martha Lewis. The love of music, books, gentle spirit, and even their faith seemed to resonate in Robert and Marvin's spirits.

More to come.....

January 11, 2008, From Muscatine, Iowa

Stitches were removed today. We still wait with baited breath that the long cut from sturnam to belly button will stay closed. A friend from our church and one of my prayer partners dropped a casserole off tonight. With it being hospital day, and the hospital being an hour away, by the time we returned home, I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness. That was even after our Deaconess called last week, and I told her we didn't need anything. I am very self sufficient, and I had cooked and frozen several meals ahead. But I was tired tonight. I welcomed the meal, and her short visit. Maybe I don't have to be quite so self sufficient.

Keith (David Keith) has noticed just a little pulling on the wound, and I immediately headed to the closest drug store and picked up some seri-strips. Just a precaution, but we really, really want that wound to say closed. Packing a foot long wound that tunnels is very painful for Keith, and very stressful for me - the packer. But hopefully it will hold. If not, we've been there, done that. Just don't want too.

I took the dogs out for a run, and while they played, picked up several more branches in the back yard. We had a large tree cut down late fall that was very damaged in the June 1 tornado of 2007. Our neighbors are going to help us cut it up this spring, and we will share the wood for burning. But as I go outside, I try to pick up a few of the branches and throw them into a nearby ravine to help clear the yard. I want us to be ready to get the chain saws going as soon as the snow all melts and mud dries up, and hopefully before all the grass beneath the tree will die.

I got myself an electric chain saw for Christmas, on sale for $29.00! I've never used a chain saw, but with it being small, I look forward to being able to help with cutting the small branches. There is a group of young men at a church our friends attend in Ohio that have offered to come back out for a weekend this spring, and help us with our continued tornado cleanup. The strong winds of December has pulled another tree down that stood by the fence. So many of the trees were damaged and now, fall so easily.

The Casserole is hot, and I am hungry. Keith is resting, and needs to be.

I hope you enjoyed my post about our Fannin family roots, and the probable bet that we hailed from County Tipperary, Ireland. I'll be bringing our Welsh history to you soon!

love,

Aunt Betty

Present Day - Iowa - January 10, 2008

More snow! Big white fluffy flakes. Doctor day for Keith tomorrow. We will leave early for Iowa City, and if he is up to it, have lunch out. That will be a treat for both of us.

love,

Aunt Betty

Maude Mary (Maudi) Lewis and Oscar Fannin

Oscar holding baby Grovie, and nephew Chauncy Fannin in background. According to Robert Fannin his mother, Maude had coal black hair.

About 1918