Mom's estate

I've been working toward clearing the contents of mom's home for a couple of weeks.  Some of the items I've sold are family pieces.  Before you gasp in shock, you need to know that I have saved for myself several family pieces, my brother has several family pieces, and my children and Raymond's children have had an opportunity to choose family pieces for themselves.  I encourage you to read blog posts by Julie Hall, The Estate Lady, as her advice has been invaluable to me.

Family members included in this post:

• Ruth Elma Harder Cole
• Cyrus Walter "Walt" Ferguson
• Della Cole Owens Young
• Irene Orvetta Cole Schnack Speer 
• Arthur "Art" Fred Owens
• Henry "Hank" D. Young
• Hazel M. McNeilly Ferguson
• Howard Cole
• Olive Letha Rose Schnack
• Raymond Cole Schnack
• Stephanie Marie Arsenault Hann

Mom told me that her mother bought the machine from Uncle Walt.  She told me that Uncle Walt used to repair sewing machines.  Uncle Walt was married to Grammy's aunt Hazel.  This Singer sewing machine model #66 is the machine my mother learned to sew on.  On this machine, she crafted her own wedding dress.  I still have the wedding dress...not sure what to do with it!  I used mom's veil to drape in and around old family wedding pictures framed especially to display at my daughter Stephanie's wedding recently.  Drat, I wish I had taken a picture of the display!  

Mom told me that this bed belonged to Aunt Della.  Della was my mom's paternal grand aunt.  When Della and her second husband were no longer able to tend their farm in Milford, New York, she sold it to my grandfather.  Della inherited the farm when her first husband died in 1938.  As a matter of fact, my grandfather lived briefly with his aunt Della and uncle Art and is listed on the 1925 New York State Census as a 12-year old student in that household.  The farmhouse was large as were many houses of that time.  Della and her second husband Hank lived on one side of the house and grandpa's family lived on the other.  Although related, the two families had little interaction.  When Della died in 1970, her side of the house remained vacant. 

This is the sewing machine that my mom taught me to sew on when I was about 12-years old.  It's a Singer Slant-O-Matic.  I believe my mom bought the machine not long after 1957 (when the owner's manual was published).  My mom sewed many of our clothes and was fond of matching mother-daughter outfits.  She would also sew patches on my dad's uniforms and at times 'took in sewing' to earn a little extra money.  She also took in washing and ironing.  My dad would help with the laundry.  I only know this because its written in one of the letters from previous posts. My first sewing project was a brown, wide-wale corduroy jumper.  I remember every step of the process...mom wouldn't let me miss a beat!  I still have the jumper and the plastic 'chain' belt that rode the hip line.

I bought the recumbent bike for mom so she could keep up her exercise.  She and Raymond had been walking to the Stop sign and back every day.  When I say walk, I mean a very slow snail pace.  Mom wasn't walking so well and used an ambulator.  She could sit on the seat of the ambulator when she tired.  The Stop sign was one house down the street.  She would sometimes have the energy to walk back taking the long way which was one house up the street from her house.  On cold and rainy days she wasn't able to walk but still felt the need to move about.  Unfortunately, she never had a chance to use the recumbent bike.

Mom had trouble getting up so I bought her a lift chair.  It was wonderful for her.  And, as she wasn't sleeping in her bed anymore, this served as her bed in the fully reclined position.  Before she became totally bedridden, she had to be supervised anytime she was up and about.  To limit her activity, we would sometimes put her shoes on the other side of the room because she wouldn't get up without having her shoes on.  She never experienced a fall while trying to rise but we eventually had to use an alarm on the chair so we'd know when she attempted to get up.

Mom had this parlor table in the living room for many years.  It was placed in front of the window near the front door.  She kept framed photos on it and an old wash basin on the bottom shelf.  She said that Grammy kept it in her living room with flowers on it.

Ah, the Matterhorn.  This painting has hung on our walls for as long as I can remember.  Mom said she bought it from a door-to-door salesman when we lived in Germany.  It was his second time coming to her door that she purchased it.  When Raymond and I were very young, we took our tin horns to some of the oil paint and damaged the texture.  They had it repaired or repaired it themselves.  I don't remember the incident and I can't find any evidence of damage or repair.

I don't remember this rocker at all.  I think Mom brought it to Texas from Grammy's house in New York sometime in the 1990s.  She told me she had the seat re-caned but the whole piece looks refinished to me.  It's made of Birdseye Maple which I'm told is fairly rare these days.

This framed piece hung in mom's living room over the china cabinet.  She told me that it had been a wedding gift to Grammy.  Grammy and Grandpa were married in 1934.

Scrabble!  I don't know where this particular set came from but I remember many visits to Grandma Schnack's and playing Scrabble.  My cousins tell me that Grandma was especially fond of her games and nearly always won.  She didn't let sentimentality or grandchildren throw a game for her!