.

Here, gathered in our beloved South Dakota, are a few members of our Williamson / Mattson Clan. Charles and Luella are to be blamed (be kind, they didn't know what they were doing). We're generally a happy bunch and somewhat intelligent (notwithstanding our tenuous grasp on reality). I'm also proud to say that most of us still have our teeth.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Life of Grandma Violet Pierce Mattson, In Her Words

Grandma Violet at age 6

From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove

Hello Everyone!
Dark clouds are building over the mountains to the west and a storm threatens the Valley below.
Monsoonal moisture hangs in the air making everything sticky and sweaty. Northern Utah has a desert climate so this moisture has made things uncomfortable. I'm sure there is a run on anti-perspirant in the town's shops. Regardless, we are are hearty lot and will soldier on until our climate returns and the air is bone dry, just the way we like it.

Today in our digital family reunion I'd like to show you the start of Grandma Violet's autobiography. Sadly she only wrote a few pages. I wish I would have taken the time when she was alive to convince her to record her memories. I know she would have balked at the suggestion, thinking not a soul on the planet would be interested in her boring and uneventful life. Most people do when asked to write their life history.

Convincing Grandma Violet to cooperate would have required a bit of bargaining. Ten years of history for movie or two. Fifteen years would have cost the movie or two plus a dinner out (to an all you can eat for sure). Twenty years would have been everything previously agreed to plus several hours of helping around the trailer. And her full history would have required the ultimate price - everything already agreed to plus a few shopping trips with me as the driver, the pusher of her wheelchair and carrier of her bags.

No matter what her price, it would have been worth it because what you see below is all there is.
Please read and enjoy. Afterwords, take the time to start your own personal history so your descendants will never have to write a post like this about you!

And now, the short and incomplete history of one of our family's matriarchs.

The pictures will enlarge if you click on them.