Matrilineal Monday (November 18, 2013) -- Poem by Nettie Flagg Cooke

Florence Leonette Cooke (nee Flagg) is my great grandmother (my mother's mother's mother). She was born in Southborough, Massachusetts on May 13, 1870 and she died at age 34 on July 20, 1904 in N. Attleboro, Massachusetts -- almost exactly three months after the death of her last child.  She was always known as "Nettie."

As I have written elsewhere her at The Prism, my grandmother was one of six children of Nettie Flagg Cooke and her husband, Walter Wilson Cooke (1869 - 1944).  Tragically, Nettie and Walter lost three of their six children: Russell Cooke (1893 - 1894); Dorothy B. Cooke (1899 - 1907); and Russell Church Cooke (1902 - 1904).  As might be expected, this deeply saddened Nettie and quite likely contributed to her untimely death at age 34.

Shown above is an undated poem Nettie wrote that exhibits her depression, pain, and yet hope for something better.  I suspect this was written not long after the death of her son Russell Church Cooke on April 23, 1904.  A transcription of the poem follows . . . 

                    Shut in by sickness

                    Saddened by disappointment

                    I lay and watched one day

                           The setting sun.

                     I'm one day nearer home I murmured

                           And I'm glad, so glad

                               The day is done.

                      I closed my eyes and let

                      The mystic spell of twilight

                           Soothe me to rest

                      Ere the last crimson ray had gone

                           When suddenly the room

                      Was filled with brightness

                           For the lights were on

                       And so in this way, perhaps

                            Death may come to me

                        When life's little day is done

                    

                         We close our eyes, but for a moment

                         To open them in Heaven's brightness

                                 Where God's lights are always on.

                   Nettie Flagg Cooke

Nettie Flagg Cooke

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Scan of original poem in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Matrilineal Monday -- My Sister's Maternal Line

My sister is just over 14 months younger than I am and this Thursday, June 20th, she will complete another trip around the sun.  In celebration of her birth and the gift of life she received from a chain of mothers, I am posting here today photographs of Susan's matrilineal line going back three generations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!

Susan Elizabeth Tew

Shirley Carpenter Tew (Susan's mother)

Ruth Eaton Cooke Carpenter
(Susan's mother's mother)

Florence Leonette Flagg Cooke
 (Susan's mother's mother's mother)

Susan's matrilineal line goes back much further of course, but as yet without any additional photographs or other images of the women. Susan's earlier maternal line is believed to be as follows. . . 

Florence Leonette ("Nettie") Flagg's mother was Mary J. "Jennie" Eaton. 

Jennie Eaton's mother was Charity Jackson.

Charity Jackson's mother was Mary Stocker.

Mary Stocker's mother was Sarah Burrill.

Sarah Burrill's mother was Mary Mansfield.

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Photographs from the personal collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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