My Grandparents

Here are my grandparents as I remember them. They'd moved from their big house to this little cottage. My grandma had to give up her grand piano and was so sad about it. None of her grown children had room for it either and so she had to sell it. They don't look thrilled, do they?

I remember my grandfather was dour and stern and so I rmeember he always looked grumpy. My grandma, though, usually smiled for pictures.

This is more the way I remember my grandma. She loved her garden! Grandma is a mixture of heritages. One side of her family has lived on Long Island almost from the beginning. She was related to the Smiths and Ketchams, two prominent Long Island famillies.

She is also descended from a French Huegenot, Ruel Rulon. His brothers smuggled him out of the country by hiding him in a wine barrel headed for "the colonies". He landed in Barnegat NJ and went on to found a family that eventually included my great-grandfather, a lighthouse keeper.


Here Grandma looks very serious again but she's in her kitchen. I thiink she loved this room best of all. You can't tell it from this picture though!


I don't know a lot about my grandfather except that:
He was from Arendal, Norway; was a fisherman and a carpenter (hmmm); was a Seventh Day Adventist and read from his Bible daily; was totally against guns; had two deaf sisters, was hearing impaired and suffered from diabetes; and raised sunflowers. He just loved them. I learned from my grandma's diary that he was an abusive man, beating on not only Grandma but his own children as well.

I'll write more stories as I remember them.