A Tribute

Mother’s Day, Honoring Maternal Matriarchs

Image of Maternal Line Matriarchs
Maternal Line Matriarchs

As Mother’s Day approaches, I would like to honor the women who represent my maternal line.  Autosomal DNA testing has revealed that the haplogroup for these strong God fearing women is L3e2a.  These women represent women who were proud descendants of African women who lived life and nurtured  their families and those in their community sometimes under the most difficult circumstances.                 They endured the first middle passage from Africa and then a second middle passage to Louisiana. They survived generations of enslavement, lived through wars, reconstruction, and endured the grave injustices of the the Jim Crow south.  My 4th great grandmother Lytha Bryant and her daughter Francis were both enslaved. Josiah Gray and Hardy and Caroline Perry  where among the owners. I will say that throughout all of this, the family of  Lytha Bryant and her husband Nelson Taylor (b. Virginia) remained…

A Tribute

Remembering Walter Edward Grimes

Walter Grimes Funeral Program

F is for Father F is for father you gave me your name, you made me your child and loved me the same. F is for the fun we had during our family times. Wrestling, playing, listening to music from your K-Tel/Columbia House collection- Aretha to Miles Davis to Simon & Garfunkel. Listening to and watching comedy and variety shows together, from Laugh-In  and Flip Wilson, Sammy Davis, Della Reese, Sonny & Cher to  Carol Burnett and Hee Haw. F is for a firm but fair disciplinarian. The only time we feared you was when we failed to obey Mom. F is for fast. You were the man I could never catch in that continuous game of tag that we played for years. F is for fishing which you enjoyed so much. Whether at one of the many lakes around Grayson County near the Texas/Oklahoma border, the little creek in Halawa, Hawaii,…