“Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.”
– Unknown
Dear Sarah and Luke,
Congratulations! Your December 23 wedding was beautiful! I wish you two the best of God’s blessings in life.
With this letter, Sarah, I’m finally doing something your mother suggested I do when you and Haven graduated from high school. To write each of you a letter. I never got around to doing that for a number of reasons, all pitiful excuses honestly. And I’m sorry that I didn’t. Apparently, the muse must have been on vacation.
But when I learned you were getting married, the idea of the letter came to mind. This time, a specific thought filled my heart. Writers can be a little quirky like that. So, we can now tell your mother that I am finally doing what she once suggested. Kind of. Just a little later. She will probably smile. Because she knows her father is a little quirky like that.
With a bit of luck, perhaps I can mark future occasions in the lives of your brothers and sisters with a letter from Grandpa Leon.
As I told you at the wedding, I have a letter to my mother written to her by her father on the occasion of her marriage .
Your father, being the good man and loving parent I know him to be, has likely offered you similar advice. From a family historical perspective, I simply want to share a letter of advice offered almost 80 years ago by another father in your family. Plus, it will make your mother smile. Again. Because she knows how I am about family history.
When I remember where I filed it, which I pray will happen before your first anniversary, I will give you a copy of that letter.
The letter was written by Arthur G. Johnson, your great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born and reared in Kentucky and lived most of his life in Winchester. He was a schoolteacher and principal. His daughter, who became my mother and your great-grandmother, was born Indianola Johnson in 1923 in Winchester. She was the oldest sibling in her family. She had three sisters and one brother who lived to adulthood and one brother who passed away at a young age.
In 1944, she married Leon Aldridge, my father and your great-grandfather “to be.” He was born in Doyle, La., the last of 13 children. His mother died giving birth to him, and he was raised in Pittsburg, Texas, by his biological uncle and wife, Sylvester and Hattie Aldridge. He never knew them as anything other than “mom and dad.” Likewise, they were Grandmother and Granddaddy to my sisters and me, and she was Gran Gran to your mother.
My mother was the first of her siblings to marry. She did that at the age of 21 by traveling to Texas, where they were married at the Pittsburg Methodist Church parsonage just a few days before he shipped out for combat duty in Europe with the U.S. Army 276th Combat Engineers during World War II. She lived in Pittsburg with my father’s parents until he returned the following year.
They were married for 62 years until he passed away in April of 2007. I have photos of them holding you and Haven as newborns.
Family was important to Arthur Johnson, who, with his wife Bernice, raised their children in a large white two-story home that still stands today at 382 South Main in Winchester, Kentucky.
When I first read the letter, I tried to fathom the emotion with which my mother’s father penned it knowing his oldest child was following her husband-to-be 800 miles from home to Texas to marry. And that within days of their marriage, her new husband would leave for how long, she had no idea. To fight in a war. One from which many husbands and fathers did not return.
In the letter, he wished his daughter love and happiness, encouraging her to do four things:
• Stay true to God.
• Stay true to your husband.
• Stay true to yourself.
• Stay close to your family and get together often.
Arthur Johnson’s children took the advice of staying close to family to heart. Although they settled from Ohio to Texas to California, they had family reunions every summer in Kentucky. Really — every summer. Without fail. Some driving days to attend.
Those reunions are precious childhood memories for me. And because of them, my generation of cousins are more like brothers and sisters than cousins.
Today, two of Mom’s siblings remain. Uncle Bill, the youngest, turned 88 this year. Aunt Jo is 93. My generation continues the tradition with some degree of success. We meet in Kentucky every five years or so and in Abilene for other years. Because that is where Uncle Bill and Aunt Jo live, and they are not able to travel.
Your mom and dad have created a beautiful family with values and a bond like none I have ever known. I suspect there may be a bit of Arthur Johnson’s heritage there somewhere. I once asked your mom, an incredible woman in so many ways, “Robin, how did you do that? You sure didn’t learn it from me?”
She just smiled. Like she always has. Because she knows her father.
I know that’s a boatload of family history in one heap, some you may have already heard from your mother. But the thought of that letter Mom kept in her cedar chest her whole life, both of you marrying at the same age, both of you the oldest sibling, and both coming from homes with strong family values was on my heart at the wedding. And the muse, fickle as she can be at times, would not let me pass on the opportunity to share it with you.
So, I wanted to write the letter to you, Sarah. Hopefully, it will make everyone smile. Especially your Mom. Because I like to see her smile.
Many smiles and much love to you and Luke. And Happy New Year!
Grandpa Leon
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(Photo credit — The perfect wedding photo taken by the father of of the bride, Jonathan Osteen.)
Aldridge columns are published in these newspapers and magazines: The Center Light and Champion, the Mount Pleasant Tribune, the Rosenberg Fort Bend Herald, the Taylor Press, the Alpine Avalanche, The Fort Stockton Pioneer, The Monitor in Naples, and Motor Sports Magazine.
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