My great-grandmother’s diary:
She received 30 dollars rent.
“Winnie came in at Supper time- we had scallops= there so good, and we cleaned the platter. Roger came over, took us over, had a good visit with the children and them.”
Winnie was a daughter in law, I think. Roger her youngest son, father of three children. He was the youngest by quite a lot, and he also had his youngest child after a fairly wide gap. Roger served in Europe in WW2 and was extremely popular with his nieces and nephews. They were a bit resentful when he finally got married, because as the young bachelor uncle he had been quite the playmate. But his new bride was a keeper. I am told she had parties and games on for the nieces and nephews when they came to visit, so rather than halving their share of their fun uncle, the new aunt doubled it.
When I was a child I loved visiting their family as well. Their youngest child was my mother’s cousin, but he was only a few years older than me. The other children were, like their parents and grandparents, very science minded, especially the life sciences. My grandmother, Great Uncle Roger’s big sister, had gone to college in the 20s and got her degree in botany. I have mentioned this quite often, and I will be mentioning it again, because my grandmother was a remarkable, lovely, dear woman and I am very proud of her. Uncle Roger’s daughter was and is a science teacher, I believe.
There were habitats on the lawn made of children’s wading pools, full of freshwater plants and turtles and other living things, even though they lived in the middle of the city, even though they lived in town. One of my adult kids has a huge fish tank in her living room, and the primary occupant is a turtle named Lily. Although of my children, never met their great grandmother and only the eldest and she only as a baby met my great-uncle Roger and his wife, I like to think that their love for nature and and making sure their kids are exposed to it are part of that family legacy.