Friday, October 28, 2016

The Go Get Katie Weekly Link Round-up



It's that time of year again, and while most of the rest of you are celebrating Halloween, I'm celebrating the Day of the Dead-- Dia de Los Muertos. Of course, I do live in a perfect part of the country for it, but it also helps that I like the artwork and I prefer the significance of honoring the dead over playing tricks.

Kathryn Seger Brookshier
I was going to share some typical art for the celebration, but I'm intending to go to the Desert Botanical Garden's annual Dia de Los Muertos exhibit, which means that I will have plenty of photos for a different post. Instead, I'll honor the dead.

The photo you see to the right is of my maternal great-grandmother, Katie Brookshier. Katie was a tiny thing-- four foot seven or eight. My mother (who wasn't as tall as I) could hold her arm out, and Gramma Brookshier could walk underneath without touching.

Katie had a difficult life growing up, and she had to hire herself out as a housekeeper/cook when she was quite young. When she married my great-grandfather, she became a devoted wife and mother, raising nine children out on a farm outside the village where I grew up. 

Katie had a knack for healing, and whenever anyone was injured, sick, or giving birth, folks in the area would automatically say, "Go get Katie." My mother inherited Katie's healing ways. She also courted her grandmother's wrath by hiding and watching Katie make some of her prized foods-- like biscuits that were so light you had to nail them to the plate so they wouldn't float away. Katie was known as a cook, and even when her health meant that she had to move into town, she kept a big garden-- and she had to use two canes to walk. She'd use one cane to poke a hole in the dirt and the other to put the seed in the hole and tamp it down. She had one of those little 1920s-style iceboxes, and folks always said she could pull enough food out of that thing to feed an army.

I wish I'd known her. She is the one person in my family whom I've only heard spoken of with great love and respect. This Dia de Los Muertos, I honor you, Katie.   




►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

►The Happy Wanderer◄

►Fascinating Folk◄

►I ♥ Lists◄


That's it for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!


2 comments:

  1. How fascinating to learn about your great-grandmother, Cathy! Such important wisdom they had in those days, I think. She must have really been interesting. Thanks, also, for the links, as ever. That house in Pompeii is calling...

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    Replies
    1. You have a knack for always choosing one of my favorite links, Margot!

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