Tapestry

  Blanche Louise Shipley Phillians was born 110 years ago today in West Brownsville, Pa.  She was one of three daughters born to Howard Francis and Annabelle Ferguson Shipley. She married George Harry Phillians on June 11, 1938, in Hagerstown, Md. and on March 17, 1945, she gave birth to my mother, Roberta Lee, their only child. She died on December 11, 1997, the day before her 86th birthday.  Rumor has it she was the life of the party when she was younger and living in the booming town of Brownsville, Pa. She worked as a store clerk, rolled her own cigarettes, and baked a pretty good loaf of bread. She was a mix of superstition and anxiety and although obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) wasn’t a term back then, I’m sure she had it. In her adult years she worried and worried and then, for good measure, she worried some more. Blanche Louise Shipley &  her friend Ruth Ann She absolutely adored my grandfather and spent her whole life making sure he was happy and we...

Today would have been my Nana's 100th birthday! Ruth Elaine Brown was born June 17, 1921, in Fayette City, PA, the second daughter of Isaac and Mary Balsis Brown. I remember her as a devoted and caring grandmother, who would do anything for her family.  She also had a strong and lovely singing voice. She sang when she washed the dishes and she sang when she folded laundry. She also sang beautiful old-time hymns in the church choir. When she was a young woman she attended the Clarksville Christian Church, where she met and fell head over heels in love with a handsome young man named Forest Vance Ross. They eloped and made their home in Clarksville, PA, where they raised three children: Kenneth Isaac, Forrest Wayne, and Janet Lea Ross. She was the matriarch of our family and her home was the gathering place for picnics, Christmas Eve dinners, Thanksgiving feasts, and plain old Sundays. Things just haven't been the same since she passed away on December 8, 2014, at the age of 93. ...