“We need to get together more often and not at a
funeral.” How many times have you and a cousin said that? Funerals are much
like a family reunion. You can learn a lot about a family just by looking at
who showed up. Using my grandparents’ guest books and sympathy cards, I’ll be
exploring “Who came to the funeral?”
is for Bricker, Luna Florence Escue Bricker, to be
precise.
Florence was the daughter of Harry W. Escue and his first
wife Sallie Florence Drummond. Florence didn’t become a member of the family
until her widowed father married my maternal grandfather’s cousin Mattie
Coleman. But Florence was familiar with my family all her life. After all, she
grew up next door to my maternal grandmother’s home on Fourth Street in
Shenandoah, Virginia. So it’s really no surprise that Florence attended the
funeral of my grandfather, Orvin Davis in October 1963. It is also no surprise
that she arrived to the funeral with her stepmother’s sisters, Reba Coleman
Morris and Minnie Coleman Maiden.
Florence was born in Shenandoah, Virginia in 1894, making
her just a few years older than her future step-cousins. In 1911, she married railroad
worker Willard H. Bricker, and the two made their home next door to her father
Harry Escue.
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| Image snipped from Google Maps Escue home on the left (white) Bricker home on the right (brown) |
Florence and Willard had a son in 1912 and twin daughters
in 1916. Eight years later, Florence’s father Harry married Mattie Coleman. With
only twelve years difference in age, Florence and Mattie were probably more
like sisters than step-mother/step-daughter.
Florence’s attendance at the funeral shows me there was
an emotional and caring connection to her step-family and their cousins. She
was an adult, a mother in fact, when she became part of the family. When she
signed my grandfather’s guest book, she had been a widow for nine years.
Perhaps she saw herself as someone who could offer comfort and encouragement to
my grandmother.
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| Card attached to floral remembrance |
Florence Bricker died at the age of 87 and is buried in the Coverstone Cemetery in Shenandoah, Virginia where the Colemans, Davises, and other cousins are also buried.
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| Photo courtesy of Jan Hensley on Findagrave.com |
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| Photo courtesy of Jan Hensley on Findagrave.com |
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© 2015, Wendy Mathias.
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