Grandmother’s Grand Smother
Today’s post gets a little personal. My father’s mother, whose maiden name was either Cora or Marguerite Price, and whose Uncle Arthur co-founded the city of Chandler, Arizona, left this earth in the first part of January, 1979. It wasn’t till I started this page, based on a framed photograph of her probably taken in the early 1930s, that I discovered how dark the dark side of my memory of her could get. I suppose she did the best she could, and I owe her my life, my circumstance, and a lot of my DNA; but my poor Uncle Jim (birth name: Brian Aylesworth Bowers) and my poor father (he could have signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs, and would have if he’d followed his dreams)! There is a Latin phrase, “de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est,” that I am defying here. She ruled with an iron fist in a satin glove.
One with Clay, Image and Text 
I don’t think I ever met your grandmother. I remember you guys had a really young aunt, though, on the other side. More like a cousin.
Indeed, Diane Householder, now Norrbom, is about a year younger than Harold, and as kindly and sweet as ever. My grandmother, Marguerite Merskoetter, after dropping my dad’s dad, Harold Ross Bowers, like a bad habit, was married to Clem, who founded Arizona Safety Shoe & Equipment Co. (later Aim-Safe, Inc., where I worked for eleven years), and who employed both Dad and Uncle Jim. Clem & Marguerite visited us at our home rarely; more often, we met them at Bob’s Big Boy, usually because it was someone’s birthday. –O great: now I want a Bob’s Big Boy hamburger, with that thousand-islandy sauce…If you ever heard any of us refer to “Mommy Mom,”–that was Marguerite. Thanks for checking in, Michele!
Hey Gary,
I like the way you combine your way with words with your artwork.
Thanks, Donald. “Illustrated by the Author” have been magic words for me since I was a kid.