Elsie Alice Horrell was born in rural Dewey county in an area along the bend on the South Candian river known as Canadian. Not a town, just an area. She was one of 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. She was my father's mother, my grandmother. She was the last of my grandparents. Her health has been failing her for the last few years, but she was at home until just last November, when she finally had to go to a care center. She could no longer get around at all, but she would try...and fall. My uncles took turns staying with her and they had home health nurses that came in too, but her health finally forced her out of her home. She was mentally sound and probably the worst part of her immobility was missing church. She was a devout Christian woman.
The changes she saw in her lifetime boggles the mind, from the days of horse and buggy to the digital age, and she never learned to drive. She had 4 children and buried two of them when they were young adults. She was widowed in 1995. She outlived all of her siblings and all but one of grandad's.
Such is the rhythm of life as the old generations pass. We lose so much when we lose them, so much wisdom, the kind born of experience. And we lose our history, one life at a time. Don't fail to learn and cherish the history of your own family, for it is the history of us all.
