More from the life of Cousin Grace

[What follows are snippets stretching from Grace’s earliest days with family on a Memorial Day weekend to her final days witnessing the wrath of Hurricane Helene with her surviving family.]

Some one(s) in our family, parents, sisters (and I tagged along) remembered to gather up blooms and water, load all in Uncle Joe’s 1928 Buick, and head for our church cemetery on or about Memorial Day. The pink peonies were in full bloom, probably, along with the yellow daffodils that brightened our lawn. There were some snowball blooms from the grandparent’s yard too. The cemetery was Memorial Park just off Rt. 8 on the way to Pittsburgh.

We dared not forget the water to add when all the flowers have been placed on the Hill family graves: For the first years, I remember that we picked up Grandma Alice (Moon Hill) to visit the graves of  her sister Aunt Hazel Hill Nicely,  my Grandpap Joe, eventually Daddy (Harry Hill), and countless others we tried to honor.

The American Legion usually met at a marker in Valencia earlier to mark the day. We always seemed to have red paper poppies sponsored by the Legion. Were they a money maker or just to jolt our memory about the two World Wars in France? Probably both.

Later, after I married and moved to Falls Church, Virginia, we would pile our kids (and a neighbor or two) in the station wagon to view their Memorial Day parade and listen to the band music, waving at the people we knew, including the driver of emergency vehicles, and cheering the friends who marched in the band.

After the kids left home, our usual routine was looking for  a restaurant that was open on the holiday. Our cemetery visits, though, are fewer now. Unfortunately, we  have even more friends buried there.

[The following is from one of the final letters from Cousin Grace who passed away just shy of her 97th birthday, which was to be February 10, 2025. We were informed of the experience Hurricane Helene presented in 2024.]

It started to rain and blow about 9:00 Thursday night. There was lots of noise in the house  as we have a metal roof. About 11:00 it suddenly got quiet – no wind, no rain, and that was it for us. But much, much damage in next counties west and north. But trees down every where and power out for daughter Luanne. A tree had fallen on her car. Son Gary too our car out to her early the next morning  as she had to get chicken feed. She brought him back. She lives in the country and was among the last to have electricity come back on. She has a generator for her freezer, but also needs a refill of gas for her gas supply periodically.

As it turned out, we only experienced the tail end of Hurricane Helene. The wind did not sound as severe as with some other storms. I opened the front door the next morning and found the walk leading to the front door full of bits and pieces, leaves and twigs in one huge pile, but no limbs. There was much, much damage and power outages in many areas nearby. I heard electric junction boxes explode in neighborhood. The lights blinked twice but came back on right away. Our good governor had electric repair trucks lined up before storm, imported from other states, and ready to do repair work. Gary would be cleaning up the yard for days to come – he had a storm just a couple of weeks ago with even more debris at that time.

There was so much water with this storm, in homes and on roads. Everyone was urged to stay off the streets yesterday and today. Daughter Ginny and husband Gene are going to come, but are waiting to see how highways are in Georgia and the Carolinas through which they must travel. The death rate is getting higher each day, unfortunately.

 

[Cousin Grace closed this account of the hurricane with the simple good imperative: “Stay SAFE.” I recently discovered an e-mail in my files from a year earlier that both captures more of her family history and concern over the weather in her new residence.]

[Read more of Grace’s eyewitness account HERE of the clean-up of her property after the hurricane.]

Last revision: 2/7/25