Ruth Goode Jenkins (1913-2010)
You probably wouldn't believe it, but I am not really a collector. However, we do have a small collection of pelicans and clocks and I'm seriously working on a collection of old linen. Those are intentional. Some collections are unintentional and unavoidable; memories are perhaps Number One on that list. People can't help it. We remember things.
I remember Aunt Ruth. Naturally everyone who had contact with her will have memories. Mine are certainly not the most intimate since we saw each other at most once a year in those years that I lived at home (that is, up to 1962). Since then, well, not so much. Probably three, maybe four times.
Nevertheless, my memories of her are potent. She was gracious. She was generous. She had lots of smiles and serious hugs to give out. She lived kindness and exuded love. She was busy! And she looked A LOT like Grandmother Goode, so that gave her an extra aura of specialness.
This a picture of her with older sister Eunice and younger brother Oval (later to be my father).
And I think in my mind's eye she is not so different - and certainly as lovely - in this picture with me from last summer.
It was so sad to hear of her death over the weekend. We have lost a lovely lady and the last of the siblings of my father's family. Another generation gone, only to live in our memories.
