It’s awesome to think of it, but it’s true: my mother, Rose Zettie Emerson Williams, was born a hundred and twenty-six years ago. I feel very proud of her. I remember her every day and miss her.
My mom lived most of the first years of her life with her mother Florence Emerson Durham. She called her “Mammy”. That was a common way of addressing mothers in those days. The two lived in a small house on her Grandpa John Frank Emerson’s farm a little way off Calvary Ridge Road. Mom’s grandpa had a strong influence on her life. She loved him dearly. Her natural father was never there. When Mom was eleven in 1907, her mother married Billie Durham. Mom would sometimes talk about going places, (usually by walking), with her mother and Billie, but I know very little about him. Dad told me that Mom and her mother had life very hard, so perhaps things were a little better when Billie came into their picture.
Continue reading “A little bit about my Mom’s early life”