Grandmothers, Sons and The Book of Knowledge

Gearing down now after an exceedingly busy week and a half. Serendipity pushed at it’s seams from where it waits to sieze an opportune moment in humanzone to show what it can do. It succeeded in breaking through some small tears in the opaque membrane it hides behind and made an appearance in my life. It not only made an appearance, it hung around for quite awhile and put on a show. How long can one host serendipity ?

Now I am settled back in to semi-normal.
Picked up Rob three Sundays ago  in Guelph and he is now firmly ensconced in his old room.
The day after he arrived back home for the summer, we moved my spare
antique walnut desk into his room for his computer, hooked up the router,  ran
both our computers off of it, and moved a spare dresser into his room for his
abundance of clothes (he claims he has the most collared shirts of anyone he knows and I can
collaborate that it is likely very true !).
The only thing left to do in there is to move the geraniums to Mom’s summer place on Pleasant Bay  as soon as the weather warms up a bit .

 Last night  we moved a bookshelf  into my room…..I have way too many books.
I boxed up a bunch that have no bookshelves to sit on and I still have piles in the closet to box as well.

What am I doing with all these books ?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that both of my Grandmothers were teachers
and my parents are avid readers and passed the love of books and reading on down to me.
I have books that both Grandmothers used when teaching …..
I treasure them of course.  I jokingly told Rob last night, as I moved armload after armload of
dull, dark green volumes of The Book of Knowlege, that this was the internet of old
I was carting about. The google of well-thumbed pages and a smell
that only old encyclopedias can acquire.

  I recently  read about my Gr-Gr-Gr Grandmother Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise ~“Described by those who knew her, Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise was a “woman of a vast deal of energy and enterprise…of a tall and commanding figure, and most dignified”. Born in 1780, Magdelaine was the daughter of a French-Canadian fur trader, Jean Baptiste Marçot, and Marie Neskech, an Ottawa Indian………

...Born, Madeline Marcotte in the Superior country about 1779, her childhood was spent among her mother’s people (descendants of Returning Cloud, celebrated Ottawa chieftain) from whom she adopted both customs and costumes and was, in every sense, an Indian.

By the Jesuit Fathers, pioneer missionaries of the Northwest Territory, her mother was prevailed upon to allow the child, (then about nine,) to receive some religious and other training.

The faith the priests had in her proved justified, for she became a remarkable woman; a skilled linguist and a famous beauty. She always retained her full tribal garb although speaking French with Parisian purity. She was both entertaining and refined. In her person were combined the pagan grace of the Indian with the loveliness of the French, a fusion well nigh irresistible.  So thought young Joseph La Framboise, who, in the exercise of his calling as a fur-trader, met and won the fascinating half-breed….”

LaFramboise

She sounds so much like her great-grandaughter,  my Grandmother ~ Amelia LaFramboise
who was also a tall and commanding figure as were all of her brothers and sisters.
She also had a very regal but gentle and noble air about her and was filled
with incredible strength.  Throughout the hardships of her life she always smiled and helped you to believe that everything would work out ok.  I dream of her often.  The Grandmothers, mine,
are my guides . I feel very blessed to come from such sensitive yet
strong women.  I have learned from, and continue to learn from, the both of them.  They are my beacons on this earth path I walk.

©2007JoSmith