We are The Memory Keeper’s

“Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”(NLT)Luke 2:19
The ability to remember is a beautiful gift when it's positively embraced. Mary recognized that keeping the Lord's blessings near to her heart and remembering them produces beautiful memories. These memories are sweet and can carry us forward through difficult times. As this verse says, keep your blessings in your heart and think about them often.


Many of you may be wondering why I chose this topic to share, I have come to realize as I have gotten older and watched many members of my family and friends pass over, that we who are remaining, are their legacy. We are the keepers of what will be remembered, making sure, special worldly items that are now treasures , as well as the stories and memories that are related to them, are passed down to future generations. I now am the matriarch of our family. I feel somewhat overwhelmed and humbled to even write those words, my age in numbers are not overly large, but circumstances of life has made it so.

When we were growing up our nuclear family consisted of our Dad, Mom, Myself, and three younger brothers. My Dad’s profession was serving his country. Beginning when he was 16 he signed up with his Mother’s permission, and soon he was in the Navy on a battleship, manning a gun in the Pacific Ocean for the duration of WWII. It was a harrowing experience and one he did not discuss until he was in his late 60’s, when the memories engulfed him and brought back what he had chosen to forget. After the war he met and married our Mom and had me soon afterwards. He then returned to the military this time in the service of The United States Air Force, where he served for 20 plus years.  Our family lived in many states in the United States as well as a 3 year tour in England. Since our nuclear family was living away, we did not get to spend much time with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who for the most part lived in Tennessee and Kentucky.

After I was married, my husband Curt and I moved to Tennessee, and it was at that time that we were finally able to establish relationships with family in the area while learning about our family genealogy and heritage.

There are a few personal family treasures and memories that have passed down to me that I consider treasured possessions and one of those I will share with you today on Corrina Mae Wallace Johnson’s birthday. She was born on May 6, 1902 to James Brice, and Rosa Lee Apperson Wallace. She had 10 siblings, 6 brothers and 4 sisters. She was the third oldest child and was the first daughter. She married Henry Sherman Johnson and they had six sons, Carl Lee, Byron, George, Roy Paul, Sherman (died at birth), and Ronald. They gave them 18 grandchildren. Since her passing there have been many great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren that have become a part of the family genealogy. What I will share is only a small part of my personal memories, it does not begin to encompass the stories of her life, I regret that I do not know more.  Unfortunately most of those who could have shared more are no longer with us. By sharing this small memory perhaps it will encourage those who read this to write down, some of your special memories find and share pictures, about those you love and care about to record them for future generations and pass them along to your family.  
Happy Birthday ‘Grandma’ Johnson today would have been your 113^th birthday!  Today we your family remember and celebrate your life. 

   Corrina Mae Wallace Johnson

   May 6, 1902- August 20, 1976

~Grandma's Apron~ 

One of my plain and simple treasures is my paternal grandmother’s apron. There are several reasons behind my affinity for her apron.  She passed away four days before our daughter Amy Lane Germano, who was two weeks late in arriving, was born, but both she and my maternal grandmother (Bessie Sarah Terrell Engle) (September 1,1899 –October 10, 1985) in Woodbine, Kentucky, had said our child would be born on the full moon in August and of course they were right. 

After she had passed my Dad and his brothers were sorting through her things and my Dad asked "What would I like as a keepsake?", I said I would like to have one of her aprons. I was blessed and got two!  They are worn stained and perfectly encompass my memories of my ‘Grandma’.  Grandma was a very large woman, with ‘Angel Wings’ under arms. I too have been given those same attributes, so I am reminded daily of her!  When I was small my Mom and I stayed with my grandparents and Uncle Ronnie, while my Dad was in California finding us a place to live.  I remember sitting close to her and asking her about the skin under arms, she told me they were her ‘Angel Wings’, It was my first memory of sharing a conversation with her. 

One other interesting piece of information is one my Mom shared with me after our grandson Hunter was beginning to call us our grandparent names.  Curt was already known as 'Big Daddy', and we thought Hunter would call me 'Big Mama', but he just plain would not say it no matter how many times we told him. One day when he was staying with us he looked at me straight in the eye, pointed his little finger at me and said "You Memommie". So of course I said well okay then.  Later that day Mom and Dad had come over for a visit and Hunter called me Memommie, Mom looked at me in astonishment and said when we had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa  in Clinton, I too had starting calling 'Grandma' Memommie!  That was the first time I had ever heard  that story. I guess it jarred her memory when Hunter said it.  It was many years before I saw Grandma again, and I then began calling her 'Grandma'

Grandma was blessed with a beautiful olive complexion and was ‘quite a looker in her day’, as they use to say. The memories of ‘Grandma’, for me are fractured.  We would come for visits in between tours of duty, and during those times I remember sleeping in a three quarter bed with my Grandma in a small room right off the kitchen. 

             She would rise around 4:30 in the morning, and I would watch her from the warm confines of the bed as she shuffled around preparing for the day. After washing up she would dress and pin on her clean apron, then begin getting the old iron wood cook stove going.  As I would watch I would marvel at how effortlessly she went about her tasks. 

It wasn’t long before the warmth from the stove would make its way through the small 5 room house, and delicious, enticing smells would waft over me making me anticipate the homemade biscuits, sausage and gravy that would soon be on the table.

After I was married and we moved to Tennessee I came to appreciate my Grandma’s abilities of living life simply and unencumbered, whether it be gardening, passing time rocking on her front porch or cooking, she could make a little dab of this and that into a feast in a very short while.  I can say I have never enjoyed leftovers, especially mine, but her leftovers were just as good if not better than the first serving.  Eating at her table after church on Sunday was a feast not to missed.  Curt thought her cornbread was the best, mine never came close to hers!

For many years I kept her aprons in my small kitchen drawer that I opened daily.  It always gave me a private pleasure as I would see them, they were reassuring and offered stability and confidence in knowing as I went about my day that she was there shuffling around guiding my hands as I poured, whipped, and fried on my electric stove .  I will leave this story with these aprons for my children and my grandchildren, so that they might understand that they were special to me and why. I found this poem that describes very well the many uses our Grandma’s used their aprons for.

Grandma's Apron
Handmade, fancy, with rick rack trim,
stained, well used and tied around her waist

Grandma's Apron
Stained, worn, mended, she would pin this on at the top on to her dress,
 then tie the strings around her waist. She made both of these,
I have quilt squares she had cut out with the material from both of these special keepsakes




Grandma in her 'Sunday Best Apron' and her 'Angel Wings'
Picture shared by Grand Daughter Jeanie Johnson Vivyan

Grandma’s Apron

Tina Trivett

The strings were tied, it was freshly washed, and maybe even pressed. 
For Grandma, it was every day to choose one when she dressed. 
The simple apron that it was,
you would never think about;
the things she used it for that made it look worn out.
She may have used it to hold some wildflowers that she'd found.
Or to hide a crying child's face when a stranger came around.
Imagine all the little tears that were wiped with just that cloth.
Or it became a potholder to serve some chicken broth.
She probably carried kindling to stoke the kitchen fire.
To hold a load of laundry, or to wipe the clothesline wire.
When canning all her vegetables, it was used to wipe her brow.
You never know, she might have used it to shoo flies from the cow.
She might have carried eggs in from the chicken coop outside.
Whatever chore she used it for, she did them all with pride.
When Grandma went to heaven, God said she now could rest.
I'm sure the apron that she chose, was her Sunday best.

We all have memories and treasures that we hold dear to our hearts. They are in our safe place, they belong to us, we carry them with us, they ground us, secure us, they entwine around us and make us who we are and what we are about.  What I have found is that there is a story that follows a memory, a journey that begins and continues to travel on after we have left this earthly plain. I will leave you with this quote my hope in sharing this little bit of family history and memories that all of you will write, share, and honor your memories and pass them on, they are important to future generations. 

"A memory is a photograph taken by the heart to make a special moment last forever."

I took this photo at the Pepper Place Farmer's Market in Alabama
several years ago.  I call it 'Grandma'
a stone sculpture that captured my memories and essence of
Grandma in her apron and amongst the plants and flowers that she dearly loved
Corrina Mae Wallace Johnson