Aunt Cora and South Texas History
Feb 6, 2008
Had to take a partial day off to go to a funeral in Beeville, Texas, for my husband's aunt about a three-hour drive away. Got to see the dry part of Texas in its beginnings, caliche, scrub trees, dryness, dryness. Actually worked on the edit of an index on the British West Indies on the way down (my brother-in-law drove us). Amazing that work and other stuff can be done at the same time in this kind of business.
The aunt, named Cora, being memorialized was 92 at her demise; think about that. She was born in 1915...1915, near the beginning of the last century. And she lived a life that very few live anymore, a life on the land, living from the land, giving back to the land. Everytime my husband, Matt, went to visit as a child from his home in Corpus Christi, he and his siblings were feasted and feted and left free to explore the ranch by this gentle, patient, creative woman. She created homegrown food, really homegrown in the back yard, animals culled from the domestic and the wild, plants pulled from the home garden. She had no riches from our 21st-century perspective, but she was incredibly wealthy, both emotionally and materially in all the basics of life. She was one of the last of the women in the pioneer spirit. Feminists might call her oppressed, but she didn't feel that way. She felt blessed. Her legacy is vast, in children, in passing on a love of the land, and a sense of stewardship over it. I was very moved by her passing, even though I didn't know her at all in life.
It was great to be able to take off amidst all the deadlines and experience this slice of rare experiential history. Kinda brings to life all the books I've indexed on Texas history.
Had to take a partial day off to go to a funeral in Beeville, Texas, for my husband's aunt about a three-hour drive away. Got to see the dry part of Texas in its beginnings, caliche, scrub trees, dryness, dryness. Actually worked on the edit of an index on the British West Indies on the way down (my brother-in-law drove us). Amazing that work and other stuff can be done at the same time in this kind of business.
The aunt, named Cora, being memorialized was 92 at her demise; think about that. She was born in 1915...1915, near the beginning of the last century. And she lived a life that very few live anymore, a life on the land, living from the land, giving back to the land. Everytime my husband, Matt, went to visit as a child from his home in Corpus Christi, he and his siblings were feasted and feted and left free to explore the ranch by this gentle, patient, creative woman. She created homegrown food, really homegrown in the back yard, animals culled from the domestic and the wild, plants pulled from the home garden. She had no riches from our 21st-century perspective, but she was incredibly wealthy, both emotionally and materially in all the basics of life. She was one of the last of the women in the pioneer spirit. Feminists might call her oppressed, but she didn't feel that way. She felt blessed. Her legacy is vast, in children, in passing on a love of the land, and a sense of stewardship over it. I was very moved by her passing, even though I didn't know her at all in life.
It was great to be able to take off amidst all the deadlines and experience this slice of rare experiential history. Kinda brings to life all the books I've indexed on Texas history.
posted by Joanne | 12:26 PM
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