Blast From The Past -- Aunt Maydae's Box

I was delighted to find this picture.  Mother is in the center, with some of her cousins on her parents' front porch in Garland.  Norma Grover Airmet, to Mom's right, often lived with Mom's family and she and Mom loved each other like sisters.  Norma is still alive, as is Reid, with the hat, although I don't think Reid still wears a hat. Harle, standing on the left, has a daughter who gave me a lot of genealogy information.  It's a a great story -- ask me when you have an hour or two.

Mom and Dad look like typical harried parents with Collins, left, and Mike, tired of posing.

Norma mailed me this picture last month.  The occasion was Collins' 13th birthday.  Mike obviously got better at posing.

This is Ben about age 3, definitely able to sit still.

I have a lot of pictures of Ben's older sister Judith, but I had not seen this one until this morning.  Her mother, Ida Mar, fussed over her and made her some of the cutest clothes ever!

I inherited a box of photos after Aunt Maydae died.  This picture and the next 16 were included.  Nana is on the left in the white dress, sitting next to her sister Mary.  Daddy Cannon is on the right.  I don't know the other two people in the photo.  Please notice Nana's picnic basket.  I cropped out half the picture, which depicted a beautiful lake in the mountains.

This is a picture of Nana's parents.  Her mother, Mary Ann Elizabeth Driver, was born in England and crossed the plains as a baby.  Her father, Joseph Fielding Burton, was the grandson of Joseph Fielding who was among the first missionaries to England in 1837.  This fine couple had just returned from a trip to New York.  I love her hat!

Rachel Fielding, left, was the mother of Joseph Fielding Burton in the previous picture.  When she and her sister Ellen, on the right, were young girls, they promised each other they would not be separated in marriage.  Rachel was Nana's grandmother.

This man, William Driver, was Nana's grandfather, the woman with the hat's father.  He built an extremely successful chain of drug stores in Utah and Idaho, becoming very wealthy, eventually owning a mansion in Ogden.  He was on the committee in 1895 which created a state constitution giving women the right to vote, a privilege they lost in the 1880s when polygamy was challenged and all Utahans were disenfranchised.  There is more to this story: William was one of 3 men who pushed that the right for women to vote be on the first draft of Utah's constitution sent to the federal government.  The entire rest of the committee resisted, but William and his two associates won out in the end.

This is Joan, Nana's youngest child.  She is recovering nicely from her stroke and should be back home by the 17th, in time for her birthday.  If you are thinking a birthday card would be a great idea, I will agree!

I hope you aren't tired of pictures from Maydae's box.  Dad gave her this photo in 1973, a picture of a family gathering at the time of my wedding.  I'm the one next to the most handsome man!

Dad also gave Maydae this photo, apparently proud of his ability to photo-bomb what otherwise would have been a fun picture of Susan's family.

I already have a copy of this picture, but the colors were brighter in this photo.  Mom got along well with her mother-in-law, but Mom always called her Nana.  I never heard her use Nana's given name.  This picture was taken in 1979, and within four years both Mom and Nana would be deceased.

This photo was taken shortly after Nana's death in 1983.  Janet is to Dad's left.  Joan is in front of Dad, and Maydae is also pictured.  I'm having dinner with Janet this afternoon.

Maydae took this picture of our family at a gathering held at her home after Mom's funeral in September, 1983.  

I did not take my little family to Utah from New Jersey for Mom's funeral, but Collins took his.  Erik, Gayla and Douglas are having fun with this organ.

The next year Maydae visited her uncle, Georgius, in Pomona, California, one of the last surviving children of George Q. Cannon.  Maydae is holding her great-nephew, David.

This was a funny picture to find in Maydae's box, taken about 1992.

This was also in Maydae's box, taken just before David left on his mission in 1993.

In the days before social media, we used snail mail to communicate with relatives, and in going through the box it was clear that many people loved Maydae.  Mike's handwriting is on the back of this photo, sending her Christmas greetings.

Kay sent Maydae this photo about 1993 of Erik returning from his mission.

This photo, taken at Gayla's birthday with what appears to be cherry cheesecake, was likely included in the same envelope.

This photo was also from Maydae's box, Becky's engagement picture.  

I had to go back to my own ginormous stash of photos for this treasure.  In 1997 a Redd family reunion was held in Spanish Fork, and Jeff and Corinne posed with Ida Mar. I love that they loved her so much.

2002 was an eventful year for our family.  Among other things, Steve returned from his mission in Sendai. This photo represents so much emotion, and I still have a copy in my wallet, but mostly because it's permanently stuck there.  (My wallet is 16 years old.)  We knew Steve's plane had landed, but we couldn't find him in Dulles airport, so we split up for the hunt.  He finally got through immigration and Corinne was the first one to see him.  They are running toward me and I had the good sense to take this picture before we hugged.  And yes, I might have a 16-year-old wallet, but my digital camera was 2 years old, quite a feat in 2002.

Ella was born just before Steve got home, and she spent 9 eternal weeks in the NICU.  Here she is holding Jeff's hand.

I liked to quip that she was in the hospital so long that she learned how to hold her own bottle.

We were living in Virginia at this time, and Ella was in Norfolk where Jeff was in medical school.  After picking Steve up, we fed him a big dinner and the next day he drove to Norfolk to visit Jeff.  I have no explanation why I am scanning photos taken with a digital camera.

Ella liked Steve immediately.

I'm just realizing that this picture was in Maydae's box, too.  In 2006 Maydae turned 90, and Jeff's family came to Salt Lake for the celebration.  Kate, with the middle name of Mae after Maydae's name (Ida Mae), was not as fascinated with Aunt Maydae as much as she was with Papa Ben's Christmas tie.  There's always a story or two, or three, behind the picture, and scanning in these photos brought back a lot of memories this weekend.