“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 Donald, Donald Ashton Carruthers. The name in my
grandfather’s funeral Guest Book meant nothing to me until I saw the card from
Kevill’s Florist in Portsmouth, Virginia. Donald and his wife Phyllis, along
with Mary Lee and Chris Upton, sent a spray of white carnations.
“Phyllis” and “Mary Lee” are names I know: my mother’s second cousins. Their mother Elta Sullivan Farrar was my grandfather’s cousin. The Farrars and the Davises both moved from Shenandoah to the Cradock neighborhood of Portsmouth, Virginia during World War II because there was plenty of work to be had at the shipyard.
When I was growing up, Elta was a frequent visitor at my
grandparents’ home, so it was a comfort that both Elta and my grandmother
Lucille Rucker Davis were in the same nursing home. That is where I sometimes
saw Phyllis and Mary Lee. However, I never knew their married names until I
studied the cards and guest books from my grandparents’ funerals.
Donald and Phyllis also sent a card when my grandmother
died in 1990.
But what about Donald? Like our cousin Phyllis, Donald was a Cradock boy.
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| Donald A. Carruthers Cradock High School yearbook 1950 |
They might have met in any number of ways – through mutual friends, through church, or even at the local drugstore. At any rate, they married and raised a family in Chesapeake, not terribly far from where I live.
The year following my grandfather’s funeral, Donald and
Phyllis welcomed a baby boy whom they named Richard. Sadly, Richard lived only to
age 23.
Donald and Richard are buried in Greenlawn Memorial
Gardens in Chesapeake, Virginia.
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| from Findagrave.com Contributor not identified |
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