October 7, 2018

I love this picture of my granddaughters 

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 Ppaw was blessed to have been the one to buy Kyla her very first ice cream cone.
She had (of course) had ice cream, but never in a cone.
She was laughing at Ppaw in this picture. 
Oh what a wonderful time that was.

  The treasures of my heart.
My grandsons.

Anne Greene, the girl who was hanged for having a miscarriage, and lived to tell the tale.
Listen to this! It's 1650, Anne was a 22 y/o servant working for Sir Thomas Reed in his home as a maid. Apparently Anne and the Mister's grandson were fooling around, and Anne got knocked up.
She later claimed that she never even knew she was pregnant until she suddenly got really sick while out doing her work, and she miscarried.
She was only 18 weeks pregnant. 
To be unmarried and have a baby back then, it was one of the worst things a girl could do.
Scared, Anne buried her dead fetus in some dirt near a cesspool and went on about her business.
There was a law on the books at that time stating that any unmarried girl who hid her pregnancy or concealed a miscarriage back in that time could be tried for infanticide, and that's exactly what happened to Anne.
And it didn't matter that midwives came to Anne's defense claiming that the baby was much too young to have survived outside of the womb, Anne was hanged in the courtyard of Oxford Castle on December 14th 1650.
She'd begged her friends to pull on her legs during her execution, so that it would be quick, and they did. She was even beaten in the head as she swung for 30 minutes to ensure she was, in fact, deceased.
Soon her remains were placed in a coffin and taken to a medical school. 
When Anne's coffin was opened, it was noticed that the young woman was faintly breathing and she had a pulse!
It's reported that the man who opened the casket, trying to put Anne out of her misery, dutifully stomped her chest several times before the surgeon walked in and forced him to stop.
Noticing that Anne was still alive, the surgeon and his staff did everything in their power to revive her, and she did survive! 
Now, back in those days especially this would've been seen as a miracle, an act of God.
There was no other explanation for it, as the people themselves had watched Anne die.
She was then pardoned, and allowed to live her life.
It's said she even kept the coffin she was transported in as a souvenir!
Anne went on to marry and have more children.
In 1665, it is reported that Anne died again, ironically, this time in childbirth.
​The death actually stuck this time.

These were taken in Richmond KY @ the Band Competition. 

Rick was so very proud of these two fish.
He had been told by many, and often, that he would never catch fish in that particular creek ... he cast a line, and each time, he caught something.

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My good-lookin' hubby when he took me to see The Alamo.
It was a great day, just a wonderful trip.
Humbling to take the tour, to stand at the memorial and see our family's names there.
To stand in the very place where good men fought and died to win our independence from Mexico. Remember the Alamo!
Always! 

I seldom like my pictures.
However, I do like this one.
Soon after Rick died, a friend suggested that I take the "damn selfies".
Telling me that they would be not only a visual diary of the grief,
but also a journal of the healing.

Another friend commented on this picture,
saying that he could see the joy in the smile,
yet the sadness in the eyes.

It's me.