Family: It leads me to a familiar place

Family! When I think of family I think of my children, my mom and dad, my home...but eventually I wind up in a place that is familiar to many in the Tribe / Jackson / Hazen family...Grandma Annis and Grandpa Howard's home on Pierce Avenue. This home has great memories, smells, and an incredible garden that we all got to dance around in at least a few times during a summer barbecue.

I love my Grammy! I love how she taught me how to clean while I cooked, make the Christmas wan-tons, chicken wings, the Carmel popcorn, and how she would talk to me about the old farm. She would tell me about the quilt that was drawn up in the attic that split the boys side from the girls side. She would tell me of the super cold mornings that the water in the dishpans would freeze solid and the fire in the kitchen would be were everyone wanted to be...but the journey out of a warm bed to get there was enough to do one in.

She would tell me how she was picked to do many of the chores around the farm with dad. He told her that she was the fastest and could "lick a chore faster than all her siblings combined". It was grandma who helped to kill the chickens and it was grandma who learned how to whip up a pie of a cake within nothing flat from her mother. Grandma told me of times when her mom would be working in the kitchen and she's see someone coming down the lane and before Annis could announce it to her mom, her mom was making cake, or a pie to throw in the oven for their guest.

She talked about pickling in the summer kitchen and putting up bushels of cherries, beans, and peaches. Sometimes when the boys would come in off the fields that's all there be to eat bread and peaches. Grandma Annis would share how they would make 20 loaves of bread on Monday and how at the end of the week they'd all be gone. She learned to sweat through baking day, and endure the heat of the summer kitchen, and do the chores up right and fast so that she could do the sewing and mending.

Grandma shared stories about he dad hitching up the teams to work on the North Ogden pass. He was a teamster and would travel to the base of the road (the pass) and how it was he who was trusted to drive the heaviest loads down the passes because of his "great skill at handling the team." She shared these stories with me with a tremble in her throat. She loves her dad and loved the time she got to spend with him. She was the worker and because of how fast she could work she was chosen to help support her brother on a mission, her sister Millie who served a mission and other family members as they attended school. She would work at the cannery, and she worked as a seamstress to add the extra income they needed to support the family.

She talked about the little carved box her dad had made that helped the families combs. She has it in her bathroom, and I remember as a child looking at this carved box with the combs. It wasn't fancy but it was from home. That impacted me. "it wasn't fancy, but it was from home." I thought about how home and family really are the heart of what Grandma was trying to teach me. Having the big Christmas party, Thanksgiving, Easters, barbeque's and so forth was to have the family home around you. As long as there was food, the family would gather. Food was the glue and it helped when your were stuffed to lay around the couches and talk with cousins, aunts and grandma.

Grandma would share stories about the humble Christmases they would have at the farm. She loved to tell about how her dad would light the pudding as the highlight of the night. As a child this brought an interesting picture to my head, but eventually I began to understand. She talked about those Christmases as some of the best of her life...yet they didn't receive much. She talked about how she was determined to bring more into her our family's Christmas. Grandma always had something special for us at Christmas...but for me, it was enjoying the smells, the sights, the sounds, the laughter, the decorations (we knew which decoration we were searching for on the tree).

I know that this is a long rambling but I feel impressed to talk about it. Grandma Annis is sick and I just want everyone to know how much she means to me. I have had the privilege of driving grandpa to his appointments and then having long conversations with Grandma while we waited. I have the privilege of talking with Grandma each Holiday as I helped her prepare meals. I had the privilege to learn how to work hard, fast, and efficient in order to keep the family running. I learned that Grandma also loved to write. She wrote a few creative works for me while I was out on my mission that I treasure.

I had the privilege to helping Grandma move from her treasured home on Peirce avenue to her home in South Ogden. I was blessed to be there and help her move out and down to the Wentworth. I remember how emotional I was as I was helping. I just felt overwhelmed with love. I was mixed with sadness of the golden years and now into the twilight moments. I just remembered that I want to leave a legacy of love for my family as Grandma has for me. Everyone has their own perspective about family, but for me my perspective about Grandma is one of love. I love you Grammy! I will carry on the traditions! I love you!