Luck played a huge part in my maternal grandmother’s mother’s life. Most of it was bad. Who knows how things might have panned out for her had she gotten a different set of breaks? What actually happened to her is interesting and instructive, especially to those who profess to make their own luck.
Great Grandmama was married to a poor Georgia farm boy who’d decided to seek his fortune in town. They met at the Georgia State Sanatorium in Milledgville around 1900. At that time it was the largest employer in Georgia. She’d gone there to study nursing but somehow wound up as the operator for the facilities primitive phone system. Great Granddaddy worked in the laundry.
After they were married Great Grandmama’s relatively prosperous father set the young couple up with their own laundry business in Palatka, Florida. I have no idea of the potential of such a business. I would imagine with a little luck and a lot of hard work, it would have thrived and provided a comfortable, maybe even prosperous life for the couple. That, however, wasn’t meant to be.
Great Granddaddy developed some sort of respiratory condition from inhaling the fumes of the chemicals used in the cleaning processes. It must have been serious. On the advice of a doctor, the couple sold the business, pulled up stake, and moved to a section of land they’d bought sight unseen in Wilmer, Alabama. The plan was to return to farming and country life.
Even though they owned their own rich farmland, the challenges of farming proved to great. After a few years the couple and their three daughters began a series of moves around Mobile County. Great Granddaddy worked a variety of jobs. To say the least, times were hard.
Then, after a few years, luck smiled on the family. Great Granddaddy took a job as foreman of a large citrus plantation in Theodore. The job came with a nice house to live in, and that was a first for my grandmother. She remembers having plenty to eat, and that included all the fruit — oranges, satsumas, tangerines, etc. — that they cared to consume. She began to feel a part of the student body at Theodore School. Life was good. By far the best she’d ever had it.
Then, in the summer of her eleventh year, a powerful hurricane struck the South Alabama coast. It totally destroyed the plantation where they lived, and with it their livelihood. The family had no choice but to return to their abandoned farm in Wilmer. That December my grandmother turned 12. Three months later her mother gave birth her sixth daughter. Two weeks later Great Grandmama died from pneumonia. Cold, malnutrition, and lack of medical attention were all factors in her demise. The stars in their courses were against her her entire adult life. Who can overcome such as that?
