Eleanor

After my mother, Eleanor Garthwaite, passed away I found this unusual object when we were cleaning out the house. We weren’t sure exactly what it was. It had a heavy metal base and five tall rods with clips at the end. I use it to hold some pictures of my mother and my grandfather.

This shot is the only picture I have of my grandfather, Walter Todd. It was taken in 1963 as he was loading a wagon to prepare to take his sons and my dad on a fishing trip.

My grandfather’s great-grandfather came to the United States from Ireland, but the family was originally from Scotland.  They landed in new York in 1812 and in April they purchased a conestoga wagon and journeyed south to Hanover, Pennsylvania which took them a month or so. They spent the summer there and continued on to South Carolina in the fall. In the family history this is said of my grandfather: “The Lord must have looked upon the marriage of uncle Walter and Aunt Alder with favor, they were blessed with a large family. They always impressed me as being two happy people. Uncle Walter had the facility of making people happy.  There was always laughter when he was present. To me that is a virtue within itself. He was such a warm and lovely man.”

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mother. She was chasing my father with a broom. Dad was a tease and I can just imagine her swinging that broom at him. The house behind was where my mother grew up in Eastern Georgia. Dad was a Yankee and he promised her that he would always take her home once a year when they married. And he stayed true to his word. Every year, during the first two weeks of July we traveled south. I remember playing in the sand under those black walnut trees in the picture.

I’m crazy about this picture of my mom checking her makeup in the side mirror of my dad’s first car.

I’ll bet mom was only sixteen when this picture was taken.

My mom was a wonderful lady and when I look at these photos I catch a glimpse of her youth.