Category Archives: Sentimental Sunday

Happy 110th Birthday Nana/September 6, 1905/Sentemental Sunday

macruth
Ruth and Mack taken about 1980 or so in Florida

This is one birthday I never seem to forget, and I am not sure why. Perhaps there are a  lot of dates that fall within this first week of September, a wedding anniversary, a friends birthday, a nephews birthday. Maybe it is because the change of seasons, I really don’t know but I do know not many years go by that I don’t remember Nana on her day.

Nana was born Adela Ruth Ogilvie on September 6, 1905 in Clarence, Iowa. Her parents are Rev. David M. and Barbara (Kaye) Ogilvie who where married on May 17, 1887 in Cook County Illinois.

She went by her middle name Ruth rather than Adela. Nana signed her name after she was married Ruth O. McCartney, so she kept  her maiden name intact.

Ruth is the youngest of eight, consisting of 2 boys and 6 girls, it must have been very interesting for the youngmen in that household at times.Ruth must have had an excellent teacher in the kitchen, and was  a quick study, for when she was 12, she was  awarded for her cooking abilities.  Somewhere along the line Ruth decided  to teach and she pursued that profession. In 1930 census we find her teaching in the Doylestown Schools located in Wayne County, Ohio. In Doylestown I am told is where she met her future husband, my Grandfather, W. W. McCartney aka Mack, at a church gathering. Ruth was also his Latin teacher.

Mack and Ruth where married on November 2, 1935 in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. According to Ohio law at that time, she gave up her teaching, to become a full time wife and a mother to two boys. James and Thomas (Jimmy and Tommy ). I must say Nana never stopped teaching! She always had something to share, whether it be music, nature, grammar, etiquette. Nana played both organ and piano, she learned this at an early age from one of the organist at one of her fathers many pastorates. Ruth was the ogranist at Old South Church in Kirtland, Lake County, Ohio for a time.

By the time that I came along she was indeed a very busy lady, raising strawberries, helping grandpa with his orchard and garden and of course house work and her own flower gardens and all the other duties and hobbies that she had.

We as a family lost a treasure  to cancer on April 3, 1985, in North Fort Myers, Lee County, Florida. She now lies next to Grandpa at the South Cemetery on Rt. 306 (Chillicothe Rd.) Kirtland, Lake County, Ohio.

She is missed by many!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Hunting

Sentimental Sunday-The Ripple of Our Lives

John DonneNo man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. John DonneMeditation XVII

Mr. Donne had a very good point, each of us touch more lives than we ever know. We do not stand alone, even if we choose being alone our lives still touch someone at one time or another.

I have been lucky to find some extended family while doing my family research, some have found me to correct errors and others I have found while doing research or just by watching post on Facebook, generated by other cousins and those that comment on their statuses.

I was talking to a cousin that is four years younger than I. Mike and I were talking about spending time at my grandparents home in Kirtland. There were a lot of shared memories many of them warm. I don’t know why as their grandchild that I thought Nana and Grandpa had no contact with other children (even though I knew better), that we were the only ones they ever entertained. Mike shared with me how that they used to climb the hay stacks, humph I thought, we were never allowed to do climb the hay stacks. I am wondering if it was because they where boys and we were girls, or maybe Mom and Dad just didn’t want us climbing.

Then Mike started to tell me how he rode our bikes, you notice how I put OUR bikes. When Grandpa told me once to take good care of them because they were for all the kids, this little child mind of mine thought he meant my Uncle Tom’s three kids,  my sister, and I. I will tell you at the age of 53  I had a short knee jerk reaction and I had to hold my tongue! I wanted so to say Mike what were you doing riding our bikes! How dare you! I didn’t cause I really knew that those were for all the kids.

I was talking to another cousin the other day and she had said she always loved it when Uncle Mac took them for rides on the tractor, well here I go again…what! Grandpa how dared you give anyone else a ride on the tractor! ( I know I am being totally ridiculous!)

These cousins are dear to me and they have given me a new look at my grandparents from different eyes . They have stories to tell that are different from mine, but yet very much the same.  I doubt Nana and Grandpa treated them any different then they treated me…hummm, maybe not, seeing I was the first-born grandchild, oh there is that little self sneaking in there. I may have had a special spot in their hearts, I am sure that their great nieces and nephews were very special to them as they are to me now.

No man is an island, his life touches many. It makes my heart glad to know that my grandparents touched many lives while they were here on this earth, that they shared love with many.

My prayer is that when my life is over it will tell a similar tale. That of one who touched many and that they are now the better for it as they walk through there lives.

Happy Hunting!