A Summer Gathering in Rome

Here is Maggie, dear Grandma Pearce, probably now about 85 years old, with my little kids, Sherry and Bill at my parents' home in Rome, Illinois, on a summer day in 1956. Doesn't it look like Bill is concentrating on a word for Scrabble, which is on the picnic table. Smart little kids I had! Sherry was born on Maggie's 80th birthday as I have mentioned before and she would have been five and Bill two and a half. Maggie had really aged. She lived to be 87 years old and had a good life and good health. She was a hard worker and a lovely lady. I so enjoyed my grandmother and loved the times I got to go stay with her and my granddad and Aunt Leah. Leah never married. She worked at Bergner's in Peoria for years and years. After I was out of high school and working in Peoria myself, I used to stay down sometimes and spend the night with Grandma and Leah. My grandfather was gone--he died when I was in the late years of grade school. And, if you enlarge the picture, there is her cameo. That nostalgic, beautiful piece of jewelry is in my keeping and I know what I wish to do with it. I will pass it to someone to take good care of it and keep it in the family to be cherished and enjoyed for many years to come. It is precious to me.

Here are two ladies I loved so much - Leah and my sister, Jo. I am assuming this picture was taken at the same time as the one above. So many years have gone by - and each one goes faster than the one before. It's so nice to think of the people we love who are no longer with us.
(Click to enlarge)