Three Ladies in the Kitchen

This picture, taken in May of 1958, contains three ladies so dear to me.

My grandmother, Mary Alice Montgomery Carrico, is the little rotund woman in the dark dress.  She was 65 at the time.  Grandmother always wore her jewelry – earrings and brooch!  Occasionally she would wear a necklace, but brooches were her favorite.  She was given many over the years as birthday and Christmas gifts, and had quite a collection from which to choose.  Grandmother always wore matching hat and gloves – she had them in several colors.  I particularly remember a raspberry set that I thought were beautiful!  Her hat usually had a bit of netting and possibly a tiny flower or other decoration.  How I would love to have a set of her gloves.  Unfortunately, they were not to be had.  I do have her pewter napkin ring she used while attending Saint Catharine Academy, just outside of Springfield, Kentucky.  Her initials “A. M.” are engraved on the napkin ring.  It is a bit crumpled, but it is my treasured piece!

My Great-Aunt Lil is stirring something on the stove.  She is my grandmother’s younger sister, Lillian Catherine Montgomery Goodrich, age 58 in this picture.  She married late in life and never had children.  Aunt Lil was a registered nurse and owned two nursing homes in Lexington, Kentucky.  I’m fairly sure this picture was taken at her apartment there.  Aunt Lil outlived all her brothers and sisters, passing away at the ripe old age of 94 in May of 1994.  In her later years Aunt Lil lived in Springfield, and I visited her often.  We loved to talk genealogy and she would give me bits and pieces of her treasures during my visits.  Those are happy times I keep in my heart!  One particular day I remember it started snowing shortly after I arrived.  We had a “genealogy lunch” and shortly after she encouraged me to go home for safety reasons.  It was worse than I thought, and going to my dad’s shop in Lebanon was closer than going home.  Boy did I get an earful!

The lovely lady in the middle is my Aunt Ann, my mom’s older sister – Margaret Ann Carrico Tingle (although she was not married at this time).  She lived in Louisville after her marriage and, when old enough, we couldn’t wait for the week we spent with her each summer.  Her two children were close to us in age – and we had great fun.  Funny thing is, of all my mom’s sisters, Aunt Ann hated to cook.  By the time I was ten or eleven she let me have the run of the kitchen when there!  I loved having someone new to try out my recipes!  I am named for my aunt – my middle name is Ann.

I love having this picture as a remembrance of the three wonderful ladies in it – but more importantly their memories are what I hold so close to me.