chinaexpress2Nov 7, 20219 min readRemembering GrannyI can’t imagine a day going by that some thread of the past doesn’t inform thoughts and actions whether consciously or not. We are all...
chinaexpress2Apr 17, 20213 min readFirst Decade of the 20th CenturyIn Early April of 1907, Mattie and her newborn baby girl, already named Margaret Kirk after her great-grandmother, lay peacefully in the...
chinaexpress2Mar 20, 20213 min readGallatin MissouriGallatin, Missouri's main claim to fame was that Jesse James and gang, approximately 20 years earlier, had robbed the local bank. Ed...
chinaexpress2Mar 20, 20213 min readDecember 27, 1896 Mattie to NatI think the very last letter written to Nat. Soon after they were married and living together in Gallatin. My mother's fictional account...
chinaexpress2Feb 23, 20215 min readThreadsUnless it’s a favorite cashmere sweater, I believe in pulling at threads to see where they take you. Threads in life especially interest...
chinaexpress2Feb 20, 20212 min readFulfillment of a VowMy dear mother was an earnest soul who kept her promises and held to her convictions. She drove us nearly mad with her stubborn refusal...
chinaexpress2Feb 14, 20215 min readA Love Letter from NatI think of you lots nearly all the time and sometimes when I feel blue I think much of you and then I feel better. I want to see you awful b
chinaexpress2Feb 13, 20218 min readPre-Wedding Jitters Part 2Just two weeks from tomorrow. Do you realize how near the time is getting? It seems rather strange to me when I think about it. I can hardly
chinaexpress2Feb 6, 202110 min readPre-Wedding Jitters Part 1Nathaniel Shores Givens Pre Mustache Pre Marriage This begins my mother's fictional account of her grandparent's last days of courtship, ...
chinaexpress2Jan 31, 20214 min readNat and MattieMy mother's great grandparents on her mother's side were Martha Hollingsworth Givens and Nathaniel Givens. They had a long distance...
chinaexpress2Jan 31, 20217 min readLetter From Mattie March, 24 1891Nat and Mattie's relationship seems well established in this letter. I am going to look for earlier letters to transcribe and post, but...
chinaexpress2Jan 31, 20214 min readThe Givens My great-grandfather, William Givens, was mayor of the little town of Gallatin, MO and also its doctor. A local mason built the...
chinaexpress2Jan 29, 20212 min readThe Past is Prologue[My mother was passionate about her family's history and how she was the result of large families on both sides yet became one of the...
chinaexpress2Jan 26, 20219 min readMargaret Kirk Holland a EulogyAt the end of the great depression on November 6th, 1933, Margaret Kirk Bragg was born a Presbyterian in the university town of Columbia,...