Charles William (Bill) Reynolds had this to say about his grandparents, Ethel and William Reynolds;
My grand parents on my father's side lived on
a farm in Atkinson, NH. They chose to live there because of, William H.
Reynolds, my grandfather's health. I believe he had TB. They were almost
self sufficient living off the farm. They had Cows, Pigs, Chickens, a
large vegetable garden, apple, plum and pear trees, rhubarb, grapes,
raspberries, strawberries, blueberries & blackberries, etc. and they
shot a deer now and then for extra meat. William, my granddad, would
experiment by grafting the branches of five different kinds of apples
onto one tree. The unique tree ended up bearing six verities of apples.*
* They had an old Fordson Tractor that they rigged, on occasion, with
a large circular saw and a large leather belt to saw up wood. They owned
acres of wood land that supplied fuel for the fire place. My Grandmother
Ethel, a very religious woman, did her share around the farm. She was an
excellent cook. Her Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter meals were out
of this world. She would do up enough preserves that were stored in the
cold cellar to last for years. She did her cooking using a very large
old fashion iron stove. *
* Those staples, that required purchasing, were paid for by her
boarding kids. In fact I boarded with her for a year when I was in the
fourth grade. On occasion after the cows were milked there was a thunder
storm that, for some reason, would sour the milk. I would pray for that
to happen on occasion because with that soured milk she would make the
best damn sour dough doughnuts I ever tasted. Even our cat Sparky loved
them. *
* When my granddad died in February of 1952, his brother Myron came
to his brother's wake and funeral. He lived in Detroit Michigan. He was
some kind of a railroad man, a bachelor and a very lonely man. He
stayed, and stayed helping around the place, etc. Though
both of them were set in their ways... finally Ethel married him so
there would be no talk and gossip at the local church she attended.
Ethel, who had a heart problem, **including Angina**during her later
years, passed away in the rocking chair in her bedroom in May of 1955,
a little over three (3) years after my Granddad, William, passed. Myron
did not take Ethel's death well for he knew, in time, he would be going
back to Detroit or Canada where his daughter lived. Among other things
he would not prepare meals for himself or eat. So in June, at the end
of the eighth grade school year my folks shipped me up to the farm to
weed the garden and become chief cook and bottle washer. I slept in my
grandmother, Ethel's, room in her bed next to the old rocking chair that
she passed away in. I loved my grandmother dearly and she me so I had no
fear of her even in the form of a ghost. So on a hot summer night I
opened the bedroom window for some fresh air and a bit later the old
rocking chair that she died in began to rock. I commented "Is that you
Grammy" and the response was MEOW. It seems that old Sparky the cat had
come in the open window and jumped on her rocking chair making it rock.
He obviously would jump on her lap, in that old rocking chair, often
times to comfort her while she bore the pain from Angina. *