Chasing Seagulls One Century
And then lame the next. Everything changes.
When my grandfather Max was the age that I am now, 57, he already had three grandsons from his only child, my mother SallyJo. Those grandsons were my oldest brothers: BrotherBlackSheep and BrotherBroken and Brother007. From photos left behind and stories, I know that Max was delighted to have in his care the sons he never had and had always wanted.
My grandfather Max had named his daughter who became our mother after his own grandmother, SallyJo, who was famous for a strong character and driving her own horse and buggy to her wedding to her second husband. She outlived her first husband, our biological ancestor, by many years. He had been a courier during the Civil War. That’s what is said about him, all these years later. He probably accomplished other things in life, but no one knows what they are, and probably never will. He is defined by his job during a war for three years, such as it was, although surely he enjoyed more years of peace than war. SallyJo, his wife, outlived him and all eight children they had together ,who all died from one thing or another by the middle of the Great Depression. She lived to be in her 90’s and passed not long after meeting her namesake, her great grandaughter, our mother, SallyJo The Second.
