Aunt Florence was a woman of strength

My mother’s maternal grandmother was named Florence Prease Ragsdale. I just realized that I never knew her middle name. I began living with Aunt Florence,(pronounced “aint Florence") at the tender age of nine months old. I was told my parents had been arguing outside their apartment and accidentally locked the door with me inside crying. Someone called my grandma, who was Aunt Florence’s daughter and she came and took me away. Aunt Florence had been on her own since age 13, after her mother died. I recall balancing between crushes on boys and still playing with my dolls at that age. I could not imagine having to go to work and raise myself when I was that young but you do what you have to do.

I grew up sleeping in the bed with my great grandma in a downstairs bedroom, even though there was an empty bedroom upstairs. She passesd away when she was 75 snd I was 17. Everyone, including my mom and grandma called her Aunt Florence. She was a widow and living on a pension check. She did not drive and never married again. She was born in 1900 and her mother Lizzy had been a child when slavery ended. I found it fascinating to have a direct link to the time when people were slaves. We lived in a community where all the black folk except one family attended the same church. My great grandma did not attend services except on special occasions like funerals, Easter or Mother’s Day and I was mesmerized watching her transformation. Around the house she wore cotton or gingham dresses and usually had an apron tied around her waste and a turban on her head.

When she got ready for church, however, an entirely different woman emerged. My great granny put on cologne and dabbed powder between her double D sized breast’s before putting on a long line bra. She would adorn herself with a pearl necklace and matching earrings and get out a pocketbook that was rarely used. I was most fascinated when she put in her dentures and added a little lipstick and was truly transformed. Aunt Florence would sing hymns, popular songs or quote nursery rhymes as she went about her housework. I find now, fifty plus years later than many of her songs and saying continue to come to mind.

I realized I learned as much from her as I did reading and going to school. She could quote “The Duel” from memory as I found out when I read it in one of my books. This was the story of the gingham dog and the calico cat who side by side by side on the mantle sat. Some type of battle ensued and the animals ate each other up. I found this take to be both fascinating and disturbing.

Aunt Florence would sit on the front porch on warm summer evenings, look at the sky and say: “Red sky at night is a sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning, sailor’s take warning.” Her favorite tunes to sing seemed to be The Old Rugged Cross and Yes I'm the Great Pretender. She also would often sing this tune: “ Where are you going Billy boy Billy boy, where are you going darling Billy?” “ I'm going to see my wife, she’s the joy of my life, but cannot leave her darling mother.” The version I found online was slightly different as it asks Billy where he has been, instead of where he was going.

When I was very young I would accompany her to visit various neighbors. Once we were at the home of an older cousin who had a clock on the mantle piece in the family room. Something about that clock chiming scared me and each time we were in that house I found a way to get outside before the hour struck. On this one day I forgot and it was noon. I could not bear to hear the clock belt out it’s sound twelve times do I ran out the door and went home, leaving my great granny behind. The fondest memory of my great grandma was when she exhibited strong faith and was rewarded. My cousin Curtis was in Vietnam and had not been heard from for several years. In private Aunt Florence said he must be dead but in pubic she did something amazing.

As we children were playing outside in the front yard one summer, each time an airplane flew over my great grandmother would run outside. She would look up at the sky and begin saying "Hi Curtis," and waving at the plane. Often she would have a dishcloth in her hand, waving it like a handkerchief. All the children would stop what we were doing and begin waving and saying high to my cousin. We were young naive country kids. Not one of us ever noticed or spoke of the fact that Curtis could not possibly been in every airplane that passed by. Great granny was expressing her faith that her nephew would return alive from Vietnam and the following year he did.I recall one summer, how exasperated Aunt Florence became each time she saw Gladys Knight and the Pips on a variety show. Midnight Train to Georgia was the number one song, and they were singing it everywhere. Carol Burnette, The Sonny and Cher Show, Flip Wilson and others. I found her being annoyed so funny and would laugh when she was not looking.

One day when I was in elementary school I stayed home because I had a cold. Aunt Florence walked to the store and left me alone. I remained on the couch and never had a thought of getting into any trouble. When she returned, she gave me my first coloring book. It was about Tweety Bird and Sylvester and the first time I read "I tawt I taw a Puddy tat, I did, I did taw a puddy tat." None of these things that I have shared about my great grandma are outstanding in the usual manner, but in my eyes make her impressive.

Aunt Florence took care of everyone and was always loving and giving. She even fed strangers who passed by. I learned from her to be kind to strangers and treat everyone kindly. She lives s life of faith and strength without talking about it. Because if her stories, songs. and poems I develpoef a love for reading and have a wealth of information I can use when writing. In my eyes my great grandma, aunt Florence Prease Ragsdale was a very inspiring woman.