I came across a picture recently of my Aunt Lela Evelyn Testerman Dye, Aunt Leona Estelle Testerman Hammer and my grandma, Lela Mae Hammond Testerman. I give their full names as genealogy matters and I believe it is important to remember peoples names.
Women give up their names and take their husbands names and blend into that family and there is nothing wrong with that. But they have a whole other name and a life before said husband and children and grandchildren and I think it is important to remember who they were before they took another name.
Having said that, I know I don’t talk a lot about my childhood, but these are my biological mothers sisters and her mother.
My Aunt Evelyn worked for years for JC Penney, she was a seamstress there, the Oklahoma City location, I believe it was downtown, if I am remembering correctly. Anyway, June, my biological mother, really didn’t have anything to do with the majority of her family.
But she did with Aunt Evelyn, I remember one year she gave me two dresses, they were exactly the same but one was green and one was red. I was roughly 5, I loved those dresses, I wore them all of the time. There came a time I began to get taller, staying the same size. The dresses became way too short, even for that time period. So June took me and the dresses to Aunt Evelyn at her job. She took one look at me in the dresses and instantly came up with a solution. She added a ruffle to the bottom of both, she found material that was an exact color and texture match there in her workshop at JC Penney. I was so happy that day, those were the only dresses I had, hence they were my favorites. Having so little as a child leads to making sure my children had more than a few outfits and shoes in their closets. It is a behavior that also trickles down to my grandchildren.
Both Aunt Evelyn and Aunt Estelle were strong women who lived through the depression and WWII, they knew about sacrifices and having very little.
They both had wicked senses of humor, a trait they got from their father Wilber Ambrose Testerman. My grandfather, that man had a true Testerman sense of humor. I say that because his brother, Foy John Testerman, the man that would become my father, had the same sense of humor. My grandmother took everything literally and even though she did have a sense of humor it was not like a Testerman.
I miss all so very much, as the days become shorter and the holidays loom nearer, I become more sentimental. a trait I typically do not have, I am very pragmatic and practical in nature. Well by learned behavior, one becomes practical due to circumstances of life.
I just wanted to share my aunts with you and keep their names alive.
Angie World 