They came to the Monastery as outcasts from the world. I thought of them as penitents seeking salvation. They didn't think they did a single thing to be penitent about.
All in Family
They came to the Monastery as outcasts from the world. I thought of them as penitents seeking salvation. They didn't think they did a single thing to be penitent about.
A handful of written records, a scattering of family stories and a boxful of faded photos. Scant information that masks more than is revealed.
They were supposed to meet at Union Station in Kansas City. Aunt Maudine waited, and waited. Hours passed. Finally, sadly, she left for home. Dad showed up much later. Don’t know why, certainly not willingly.
The hill was the one upon which sat the farmhouse of my Shipley Grandparents. The ruins of the old log cabin were an easy walk down the hill.
That sums up my Mom. She was always busy at something. She would have made a first-rate Executive Secretary.
Friday, March 10, 1933, Monroe Iowa, 8:00 A.M. - Five rounds from a pump-action 12 gauge shotgun took the lives of four souls. Each died from close-range blasts that splattered blood, flesh and bone.
I sat in drowsy reverie on the stoop of the little shed that was now a chicken house.
It’s the middle of May, the lilacs along my driveway are in full bloom and, as always, they remind me of Aunt Arlene.
I believe Steve King was the first to take the trail north in search of fortune.
By the time I was 6 or 7 years old most of my Shipley relatives had moved to someplace other than Mt. Moriah.
My Aunt Maxine has lived her whole life in the simple straightforward manner of children, animals and saints.
That’s what we all called him, not Grandfather, not even Grandpa, but Grandad Bill.
My Grandma Ollie was the youngest of 4 sisters – Lesta, Lettie, Bessie, and Ollie.
The Shipley side of my family has a habit of saying, “Well…”, in a thoughtful, drawling sort of way as a catch-all response to almost any kind of conversational interlude.
After 40-some years of hanging out on the planet it finally occurred to me to wonder where I came from.