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Martha Virginia <I>Metcalf</I> Grosvenor

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Martha Virginia Metcalf Grosvenor

Birth
Death
23 Oct 1934 (aged 63)
Burial
Glenn, Jackson County, Illinois, USA
Memorial ID
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October 23, 1934. I well remember that evening seventy six years ago. The family just sitting down to supper in the old house when my mother suddenly stopped and said " LISTEN !!!" She set the platter she was carrying onto the table and untied her apron as she was saying, " Oh, Nooo! Aunt Martha has just died! That's her little dog howling. I've got to go!" She was out the door on the run. No one questioned the message nor the messenger. Aunt Martha's love for the little terrier and vice-versa was legendary. Aunt Martha bad been bed-ridden for some time , so her passing was not unexpected. During her illness , her little dog spent every minute he was permitted , curled up on the bed at her feet. Although she was my mother's sister-in-law, she was 16 years older , and she was my mother's mentor, advisor and best friend . A petite, red-haired woman with steel-rimmed "granny glasses" she was the family's repository of essential social wisdom. She raised a large family of her own. She cooked , she scrubbed clothes, she chopped wood. When us children were born, she mid-wifed. I remember when on some evenings Aunt Martha and Uncle Fred were to come for a friendly card game mom would do a bit of extra cleaning, paying especial attention to the kerosene lamps because, "You never see a dirty lamp globe in Aunt Martha's house."
Her mother's name was Ann.
October 23, 1934. I well remember that evening seventy six years ago. The family just sitting down to supper in the old house when my mother suddenly stopped and said " LISTEN !!!" She set the platter she was carrying onto the table and untied her apron as she was saying, " Oh, Nooo! Aunt Martha has just died! That's her little dog howling. I've got to go!" She was out the door on the run. No one questioned the message nor the messenger. Aunt Martha's love for the little terrier and vice-versa was legendary. Aunt Martha bad been bed-ridden for some time , so her passing was not unexpected. During her illness , her little dog spent every minute he was permitted , curled up on the bed at her feet. Although she was my mother's sister-in-law, she was 16 years older , and she was my mother's mentor, advisor and best friend . A petite, red-haired woman with steel-rimmed "granny glasses" she was the family's repository of essential social wisdom. She raised a large family of her own. She cooked , she scrubbed clothes, she chopped wood. When us children were born, she mid-wifed. I remember when on some evenings Aunt Martha and Uncle Fred were to come for a friendly card game mom would do a bit of extra cleaning, paying especial attention to the kerosene lamps because, "You never see a dirty lamp globe in Aunt Martha's house."
Her mother's name was Ann.

Gravesite Details

Headstone photos by Darrell Clendenin 2010

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