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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer May 29, 2006- - No. 72 |
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Trena and Mattie were sisters; "old maids", they were called in their later years. It seems that no one can recall them as being anything other than elderly. But, young ladies they were at one time, going about the business of young women living in the country. Neither of them ever married, it simply didn't happen for them.
Mattie seldom left the farm in all of her eighty some years. Worldly possessions, she had but few; always went to church on Sunday, rain or shine. And she wrote a bit of poetry over the years. When asked if she had ever done any traveling during her lifetime, she had to stop and think for a moment. With a rather serious look on her face and in her usual quiet voice she replied; "oh yes, I attended a funeral one time near Cascade".
Trena finished high school and went on to college. She became a grade school teacher, taught in several Christian schools in the area; and for a time out west in Colorado, too. She finally retired in her old age and moved back to the farm to live with Mattie.
Trena was plain and tall, Mattie was short and small. Their contrast of stature and character was more than obvious. Additional years passed for them there together on the old place along 88th Avenue; where Hilda and John now live. The end came easily for Mattie one evening. She mentioned to Trena that she was feeling a "little off" that day. She lay down on the floor near the dining room stove and her life came to a close. Aunt Trena went on to out live Aunt Mattie by many more years. She would often say that she didn't understand "why she was living so long". Finally she passed on to be with her sister; after a life of a little more than a hundred and one years. |
