Sad but True but it explains So Much--- Part I my Mother's Childhood.

Let me explain first my parents are very nice people and provided myself and my siblings a wonderful life. My childhood is filled with stories of family outings, holiday gatherings, and stability of being in the same neighborhood all my life. My parents had rigid rules about marriage and children rearing. One of the rules was no fighting in front of the children. So many were the mornings when I would come into the kitchen and know something was terribly wrong but had no idea what caused this chill in the air. I knew my parents were having problems working through life's ups and downs.

My parents and their respected families were very different people. My mother's family is jovial, enjoys the holidays, embraces all children, informative constantly teaching children things of life, of how things work. Very accepting and always there to help. Some of my most fondest memories is joining grandpa in the garden and he explaining to me about gardening and pruning roses. Once listening to Grandpa advice a young man about class choices for college, my husband was impressed at the grasp Grandpa had on the jobs of the future. Grandpa read the newspaper every day along with National Geographic and Wall Street Journal. My grandfather was unusually kind to my grandmother. Every dinner, visit, outing was a grand affair. My mother's family regarded education very highly. Grandpa worked for Mobile Oil in the Los Angelas area. Every year as a child and then every year with my own children Grandma and Grandpa opened their huge home, made up big fluffy beds, cooked elaborate two-three meat dinners and invited us down for a Disneyland vacation. My grandparents were experts on everything Disney. Grandfather would set me down the night before a trip to Disneyland, map of Disneyland in hand and go over the path I should take the next day. He would explain in detail all the new exhibits, an account of the cost, difficulties in the construction, and what to be sure to observe. Grandpa always had a drawer full of Disney tickets. As family visited and left any extra unused Disney tickets went into Grandpa's drawer. There were always plenty of "A" tickets for the younger children, but few "E" tickets for the most daring rides. Life was to be lived, children were to be enjoyed, at grandma's house all things were possible and all children were precious. Mother was raised loved, cherished, and pampered.

To add to my mother's life and the how very loved, cherished, pampered my mother suffered physical pain, surgeries, hospital stays for most of her childhood. Mother suffered a fall as a small 3 year old child and contacted Osteomyelitis (osteo- derived from the Greek word osteon, meaning bone, myelo- meaning marrow, and -itis meaning inflammation) simply means an infection of the bone or bone marrow.[1] It can be usefully subclassified on the basis of the causative organism (pyogenic bacteria or mycobacteria), the route, duration and anatomic location of the infection. 3–8 . Mother spent most of her childhood in a hospital bed or home isolated from others. Someone was always with mother, reading her stories, holding her as she healed after each surgery. The family knew mother was going to die. So nothing was too much for mother. Mother never had to do household chores, learn to read and write beyond letter writing, or worry about life's struggles. Mother's job was to be brave, endure, and enjoy company as a precious young lady.

Subsequently mother had a soul of gold, always took for the underdog, and was very needy for other people to keep her company. She had an appreciation for the finer things in life but always had deep empathy for a child in physical pain or deformity.

John Paul Reed 1906

Dear Cousins;

Update on Reed Research. As many of you know Aunt Helen has come to visit with me this week. We have had a marvelous time. Busy Busy every single day.

Wesley and Clyde have been sealed to their parents of which Aunt Helen is very pleased.

It was an open issue for Aunt Helen. In fact; we have nearly all of Monroe and Arminita's children sealed which brings me to John Paul Reed. John Paul although we know had no children was indeed the grandpa for all of us and many others!!! Well to complete this work Helen needed Paul's death date. Simple request: except I can not find it!!! I pay lots of money for many search engines not to be able to find Grandpa's SS Death Index. How can this be?? Is there a mistake on his data??? Sleuth Ruth is on the case.......and I will be ruthless until I solve it --- so I will just be _______________ until I can be Ruth once again.
I did learn a lot about Grandpa along the way though; Grandpa's father died when he was merely 10 years old. Grandpa took care of his mother. As this story of where and how they survived from 1916---until Grandpa goes to war in 1940s, will surprise us all. Silly kids we had no idea!
But getting back to it-----ok, wanting exact data I am looking for Grandpa's exact death date and lo and behold I can not find it.

But as luck will have it I have already planned a trip to the Los Angeles Library as a trip with the San Diego Genealogy Society.

And now I know what I must do to prepare for my trip --- I plan to get obituaries for Grandpa and Grandma, copy of their marriage certificate (1955) : Very funny potential title to a blog: my favorite Grandpa was never married and married my Grandmother in 1955!!! And no; none of the children were born out of wedlock. One of those fun Genealogy puzzles;
So there is work to be done----- while I am in Los Angeles I will be looking up Grandpa's land deeds. and maybe even Harry's land deeds-----
Yeah Yeah I am so glad I started this new blog ------ I have lots and lots to share but I can not believe I did not put Chapin in the title; but so be it.