Grandma Adamson

This is my great grandmother Clara Adamson. She died in 1982 so I never had the chance to know her, but because of my mother I've come to love her. She practically raised my mom and some of her siblings as my grandma was a hairdresser so they spent a lot of time with Grandma Adamson.

Clara was a triplet, the 6th, 7th, and 8th of 15 children! Born 1905, only she and her sister Emma survived. To keep the babies warm, they used the oven as an incubator. Clara, Emma, and Dollie were their names, and Dollie only lived a few hours.

When she was 17, she worked on a farm as a cook and met a cute 19-year-old boy Menzo who worked in the fields and they were married. They didn't have much!

My mom really admired her and has taught us to love her too. My mom said of her: "She was an early riser, a hard worker and had a bath and her laundry out on the clothesline before 7am each morning. She fixed big breakfast, fried almost everything she cooked and made the best potato soup in the world. When I was little my mother and both of her sisters worked everyday and grandma tended all of us grandkids 6 or 8 at a time. She was stern but loving and we all knew she adored us. She had a huge yard and beautiful flowers. She always wore a dress and always had an apron on.

She crocheted doilies like many in her time. They were probably used in her home to cover up a spot on the table or a worn place in the fabric of a chair or sofa. She was truly an advocate of “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” She wasn’t particularly a perfectionist in anything but somehow her doilies are ornate and beautiful.

Grandma wasn’t famous by any means. She wasn’t talented or well educated. She never had the money to have anything fancy. Remember her life. You are a part of her and hopefully her goodness will shine through you."

I never knew her but I think she is definitely a wonderful woman worth honoring and remembering!

On her wedding day