Many of you have heard me give my testimony and share some of the mental health struggles my mother had during her adult life. Some of you have asked more about her story. Here are some interesting facts my brother, John Howard, shared about her growing up.
Her father’s name is James Benjamin Meador:
1. He was born on 12/23/1850, and my grandmother, Willie Augusta Thornton Meador, was born on is 2/7/1896. They married on 2/18/20. He was 69 years old, and she was 24 years old! My mother was born on 1/31/1927 when her dad was 77, and her mom was 30! He died on 7/15/34 at the age of 84 when my mom was 7, and her mother died of tuberculosis on 1/14/1938 when she was 41. Our mother was 11 at that time. She and her four siblings became orphans and lived in orphans’ homes, and moved around to various extended family members until they were left on their own when they turned 18.
2. James’s first wife died before his second wife, our grandmother, was even born. He had ten children with his first wife. So my mom had ten stepbrothers and sisters!
3. His dad was a doctor.
4. He was a horse trader.
5. If I live to 2050, I will be 99 years old, and my grandfather, James Benjamin Meador, will have been born 200 years ago!
Our mother, Mamie Jean Meador Howard, is held by her dad in the photo and with her mom and one of her brothers, Clyde. She was about 6 years old and her dad was 83. He died the following year. Her mom was 36 and she died 5 years later.
Our mom and her four siblings became orphans and lived in orphans’ homes and foster homes and moved around to various extended family members until they were left on their own when they turned 18. Our mom had two other siblings, a set of twins who died in their first week of life. Mom told us they were a boy & a girl. They slept in shoe boxes because they were so tiny, obviously born prematurely. She said she was really sad when they died.
A new family took our mom in when she was around 15. They owned a bar, and after they closed at midnight, mom was forced to mop the floors on her hands and knees, and wash all the beer glasses. It was like mom was Cinderella living with the wicked stepmother. She got to bed really late and had to get up early the following day to go to school. When her oldest sibling, Dorothy, found out about it, she rescued her and found someone for her to live with who lived in Monroe, Louisiana. They were super nice people, an acquaintance of a cousin of theirs, and they loved mom dearly.
We called them Uncle Olen and Aunt Mabel. He was the general manager of the local Louisiana Power & Light Company, now Entergy. And later, he became the president of Glenwood Hospital when it was built. He started the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce and was its first president, and to this day, the highest annual business award in Northeast Louisiana is called the A. O. Evans Award named for Uncle Olen.
Now to end on a smile, my brother and I added in a couple of fun memories.
John: Uncle Olen and Aunt Mabel were the only people we knew who had a color TV in the 1950s. KNOE, Channel 8 was the only channel we had then, and it only had a few programs in color. One was The Wizard of Oz, which came on one night each year. The first time I saw it at their house in color, I couldn’t believe the monkeys were green! And when I told all the kids at school the next day, none of them would believe me!
Mary: The next year The Wizard of Oz was going to be shown on Sunday night. We didn’t get to go to Uncle Olen’s home that night to watch it because our parents never let us miss church. I wasn’t about to miss the one-time-a-year showing of The Wizard of Oz. So I placed a thermometer in front of the bathroom heater. I wanted to show our parents I had a fever and needed to stay home that Sunday night. Well, the thermometer burst, and mercury went all over the floor. We all missed The Wizard of Oz that year.
Our parents met at the old bowling alley on Louisville Avenue in Monroe in 1948. And the rest of their story is history!
Our mom and dad were the best people on earth!
