I REMEMBER GRANDMA

I remember Grandma very well. Many summers she would come to visit us after our

family moved to Sugar City, Idaho, July 24, 1909. My mother would get materials ready for her to sew some fancy piecework quilts. I loved and admired those quilts because of the uniqueness of pattern and design, and also because they were so bright and gay. The quilts seemed to tell a story of the pretty colorful dresses my sisters and I once wore.  Perhaps there would be pieces in the quilts of material used in mother's long aprons, blouses or nice dresses. Some heavier quilts would be made of pieces of the boy's old suits.

If Eliza worked herself out of a job she would make my dolls some articles of clothing or perhaps knit them some stockings. She would plan so much work to accomplish in a day and she would do it! Well do I remember her saying, “Hazel, I will knit one of the pair of stockings for your doll today.” And she did! She kept her promise and stayed with her job until it was done. What a lesson I learned from my petite grandmother.

Grandmother liked to tell us stories and she had a natural gift for story telling. Many are the times we sat at her feet listening to many incidents that are included in Grandfather's journal.

She never liked to think of herself as growing old. Each year when she would come to visit she would jump the rope so many times to show us that she was still nimble and agile. I remember her telling of attending a Masquerade Ball in Clearfield (dressed like an old lady). She took her bottom dentures out, (her top set of teeth were her own) used a cane, and carried off the part in great style. She said some of the ward people didn't recognize her.

Grandma was very fond of peppermint candy. I can remember spending a quarter of my precious dollar for family Christmas gifts for a box of her favorite sweets. I can remember that she would slip my brothers and me many a peppermint drop which she carried in the pocket of her apron.

We all loved her for her service to others, for her energy and optimism. We were indeed saddened to learn of her passing the day after Christmas in 1915. The lifelong sweetheart and companion of Charles Henry John West, Eliza's posterity will always be proud of her.

                                                                                                                                  Hazel West Lewis