Two Year Anniversary of My Dad’s Passing
Today marks the two year anniversary of my Dad’s death. Wow! Two years already. That first year was so long and now it’s been two years. It doesn’t seem possible.
As the second anniversary rolls around, I find that my thoughts turn less from grief and more to the times we enjoyed. I don’t know why, but today I was thinking about my Dad and my dog.
My Dad never really cared for animals. He could take them or leave them. Having five kids, he was constantly surrounded by pets though. He had no choice!
He never really cared for dogs, though we had them growing up. I like to think back on how Sierra, my Lab, worked her way into his heart.
Sierra seemed to have it in for my Dad from the start. The first two years were a nightmare. She dug holes all over the yard, got into the rose bushes that my Dad prized, and she chewed up the floorboards in the hallway.
She was a big thief as well. She seem to know that my Dad didn’t pay very good attention, so she picked on him. If he went to answer the front door during dinner, he’d come back to find his chicken missing. If he went to the bathroom while making lunch, he’d find that someone stole his bread from the toaster. Once I saw her steal a handkerchief from his back pocket. She was had no mercy!
I always knew that when my Dad yelled “son of a bitch” when in the backyard it meant that he forgot again that we had a dog and he stepped in dog poop for the third time in a week.
When my arthritis got bad, he took over taking her for walks. He would walk her at the school yard where there were all sorts of things for them to get into trouble with. I remember one funny incident that makes me laugh even now. My Dad didn’t always pay attention when he was out walking. One day, they were out on the baseball field when a flock of pigeons took flight. Sierra decided to chase them. Only my Dad wasn’t paying attention. He was looking the other day. She yanked the leash so hard that my Dad landing face first in the grass. He came home in a fluster only to realize that while he found his glasses, he forgot that he was wearing a baseball hat. He had to go all the way back and search around for it. LOL Well, at least he didn’t forget he had the dog.
My Dad hated having the dog around during meals. He hated that she stared at him begging for a morsel. He felt like she was pressuring him. He never could get her to settle down when he was eating.
I always thought that my Dad saw the dog as one big hassle. That was until after her amputation. Sierra adapted to her amputation very well. She didn’t seem to mind having three legs at all. This really amazed my Dad. He’d tell everyone about her surgery and about how she was walking seven hours after surgery.
I had taken some photos of Sierra and given my Dad a couple as a friend wanted to see what a three legged dog looked like. A few months later my Dad was in the middle of something and he asked me to find something in his wallet.
Whatever it was was supposed to be behind one of the photos. I noticed he had photos of each of his grand kids and Sierra! That’s when I knew my Dad was crazy for that dog! Oh, he pretended that she was a pain in the butt, but I knew differently. Heck! There wasn’t one photo of his five kids, but there were several photos of the dog.
There are so many memories bubbling up right now. But, I’m going to laugh again at my Dad face down in the grass and losing his hat while the dog ran around the field chasing birds. I think he’d enjoy me laughing at him on this anniversary. Beats crying, that’s for sure!
SNGF: Random Name Generator
Randy has come up with a pretty creative challenge for tonight’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. I haven’t done one of these in awhile, so I thought I’d try my hand at it.
I used the Random Name Generator to get a name to research. The first name to come up was Benjamin Sosa.
I started my search and found several different Benjamin Sosa’s in records, but none in the census. It took me four more names before I found a match: Young Richmond.
Young Richmond first appears in the 1880 US Census for Durham Township, Orange County, North Carolina. He is 20 years old, born in North Carolina, and is listed as Black. There is an Emma Cameron also Black listed under Young.
He lives in the household of a J.C. Wilkerson who is White. Young’s occupation is difficult to read. It looks like “works as Facting”. J.C. Wilkerson is a tobacco dealer. I wonder if “facting” has anything to do with that business (or I am reading it wrong, which is highly likely!)
An 1870 census search was not conclusive but turned up some interesting results. In this case, the head of family is Young Richmond, who is also Black. What caught my eye is the family listed next door. They are Richmonds and also have a child listed with them named Young.
In the first entry in Leasburg Township, Caswell County, North Carolina, we have Young Richmond. He is aged 44, born in North Carolina, and the head of the family. Young is a farmer.
Next is a female (his wife?) named Pathenia who is 43 years old. She was also born in North Carolina. There are three children listed: John (15), Emma (13), and what looks like Burry (Barry?) (11). In the next house is another Richmond family:
Mason Richmond, 67, with what looks like Jardy (female), 74, Young, 15, Paulina 12, and Mason 8.
It looks like I might have a couple generations of one family. And, look down the list of children. There is a Young Richmond age 15. I suspect Young is the one in the 1880 census. But, who does he belong to? Reading this it appears that he is Mason’s child, but since relationships are not given, it’s just as likely he belongs to Young Richmond, the head of the previous household.
I decided to take another route to putting these leaves back on the tree. Mason Richmond seems like a name to work with, so I went back to ancestry.com and typed that in.
In the 1880 Census, I found a Mason Richmond, 15 years old, living with his mother and stepfather in Leasburg. His mother’s name is Theny who is 52 and remarried to Alexander Currie. Theny sure sounds like a shortened form of Parthenia! The other children in the household have the Currie surname, so that’s not helpful. If this is Partheny and Mason is her son, then it appears that the children in the two households in 1870 may be siblings despite being in separate households.
I did a few more searches at both familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and google.com but couldn’t find any more conclusive information. I found a Young Richmond in the North Carolina death certificates, but his parent’s names were unknown. So, I think at this point I’ll have to leave this challenge. Thanks for an interesting evening, Randy!
My Two Week Absence
Seems every time I try to get ahead life happens. I wanted to dive head first in the 1940 Census, then post about my findings. Unfortunately two weeks my dog had an injury somewhere in her back end. We rushed to the Vet and found out her anal gland had ruptured.
It was going to be a painful recovery for her (and us!). The first week was very hard. She was on pain killers and though she wore a hood, she had to be watched, so she wouldn’t get to her injury. She had to be hand fed for the first two days and carried outside to go potty.
She did a lot of laying around which is unusual for a Jack Russell Terrier. She did begin to feel better at the end of the first week, though she was still sore.
She finally started to act like herself midway through the second week. On Thursday, I was able to take the hood off, which made her so happy!
It’s been a long two weeks for everyone. But, she is fully healed now. Maybe now I can get back to that census.