Family History

I thought I ought to share who these photos are of and what this is all about. Starting at the top left: This is Ella as a young woman. I am not sure if this is before or after she married my grandfather. I feel sorry that I do not know more specifics than I do. The reasons around genealogy are coming clear to me now. The next photo next to this one is of course my grandfather and grandmother, Ella and Abraham, and their first daughter, my mother. They had three daughters all together, about two years between each. My cousins can correct me on this if I am guessing wrong. In their life time they eventually had four great grandchildren. My two and one from each of the next two cousins in line after me. I do love the white dress the baby is wearing and am fairly sure my grandmother would have made both hers and the child's clothing. No one knows (I checked with my two cousins) where they went with suitcases to this snowy domain in the next photo. But we are sure the second woman is one of Ella's two sisters. You have seen the Maggie and Jiggs photo already in an earlier post, where they are dressed up in costume for a party. I wonder if it was Halloween or Purim? Again, I feel fairly confident in guessing Ella made the clothes. The next photo of the couple is how I remember them best. They were known to bicker with each other, but I never ever really heard a harsh word from one to the other, and they were mostly seen being sweet with each other like this. My grandparents were both dearly loved and admired by their entire community, I do not exaggerate! The next photo is grandma with her second grandchild, me! It is my first birthday and she probably made the cake! My brother was her first grandchild. The photo in the center next is the whole family up to my first set of cousins. The little girl in the front left is now a grandma of four. Her brother sitting across the table from her has 3 grand kids. I am the little girl one in on the left eating the drum stick, then my dad, and my brother, grandpa, grandma, my mother, my mother's sister, uncle and mother's other sister. My brother and we kids are the only ones still living from this photo. We have two more cousins with kids younger than us. Bottom row: far left is my dad, Ella, and my uncle. The guys are so young. This uncle is 87yrs old now. He and his wife, Ella's youngest daughter, are my eldest living relatives from this family. The next photo and first in color is Ella with two great grandchildren, Amy on her left for whom I am making this piece, and my daughter, both born the same month, 39 years ago! And the final photo was taken by me of Ella in a nursing home not long before she died. I wasn't sure she knew who I was that day...I recall that she was stirring an imaginary bowl of food on her lap, and she told me to go upstairs and get dressed for dinner, that it was almost ready and we'd eat when I came down. I said "Okay, grandma, see you at dinner." And then I went home. That was our last chat together. In the middle under the family dinner photo is part of a recipe of Ella's. I have the rest if anyone wants to make the torte! ;-) There is also a sewing machine with kids playing under it up there, as one of my fondest memories was playing in her sewing room, going through the button tin and looking at all the buttons. She always had a dress she had sewn hanging outside the closet door. So I hung one for her on the far upper right side. And she always had freshly baked oatmeal cookies for me when I came to visit. Thus the old cookie jar. Now you have it. Ella's life in full...I am sure Amy will be pleased with this. I am not sure how much more I will do to it. I wish I knew more about painting on cloth...had some vintage buttons, which I may still try to find...but I am not going to experiment on this quilt. Tomorrow I'll show you the back.