 |
| Graffigny-Chemin, 1909 |
Great grandfather's house is still there, but it isn't the same. I drive by and strangers live there. They are kind and invite me in. I go from room to room as we talk. I wish they could see what I see.
"A tangle of summer birds
Flying in sunlight
A forest of lilies
An orchard of apricot trees
Secret Gardens of the heart
Where the flowers bloom forever "
For me, the flowers are the iris and the tree is the sweet fig, the images I forever associate with my grandparents' house in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In my mind's eye, I see playing on the hills overlooking Graffigny, two small girls, ages nine and seven, my grandmother Marguerite and her sister Paula, laughing and arms stretched out, jumping up and grabbing fistfuls of cherries from the low hanging branches, eating most but saving some, so that their mother Laure* will make them a pie for dinner.
The postcard above was taken on the occasion of the beatification of Jeane d'Arc in 1909. Shown on the left behind the wall is the carriage house of my great grandfather Charles William Christian Meine and his wife Julia Laure Emma Chevallier.
 |
| great grandmother Julia Laure Emma Chevallier and her house in Graffigny |
(*I call her Laure and not Julia since the initials over the front door are C & L, for Charles and Laure)
Hello again (we were in touch around 2010!)
ReplyDeleteJust to tell you that at the moment there is on the French auction site Delcampe an old postcard of the Meine Chevallier house in Graffigny that might interest you.
I am still researching on the American presence in the village of Graffigny in 1917 and 1918. One of my great-aunts married there a doughboy in March 1919. Do you know precisely when Marguerite Chevallier and James Madison Pearson got married?
Best regards,
JMGH Pierre