52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 7: Valentine’s Day

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Two very memorable Valentine’s Days occurred one year apart in our family. In 1979, my parents were hosting a Valentine’s Day dinner with our immediate family when we got the call that our Nana had died. One year later, my brother, Steve. married his sweetheart, Tami.

Nana with 13 of the grandchildren

Anna Marie Sullivan Hork was eighty-six years old when she died. She was living in a convalescent home when she died. She was the grandmother of sixteen children and mother of three daughters and one son. She spent most of her life as a school teacher, teaching in Napa, California at a one-room schoolhouse on the Silverado Trail, and later in Concord at Williams School. She also substituted and taught CCD classes at the nearby Catholic church. Fun childhood memories of Nana include her beautiful African violets, yellow canaries, orange marmalade, and sour ball candies in a jar on the coffee table.

One year later, my brother, Steve married Tami Davenport in a lovely wedding in El Sobrante, California. They made such a cute couple. Unfortunately, Tami died in 2004 at the young age of forty-three. But their marriage was filled with love for each other and their two children.

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.