ELLEN 

Ellen   

Contributed by Loretta Washington, Master Storyteller

 Please allow me to take you back in time and introduce you to one of the most important women in my life.  My great grandmother, Ellen, or, “Mama”, as we all called her.  Mama was born a slave on a plantation in Tennessee on March 02, 1860.

 Shortly after the end of slavery my family moved from Tennessee to Mississippi.

 In Mississippi, Mama met my great grandfather, Cornelius Walker.  Mama and my great grandfather were married on January 24, 1878 in Houston, Mississippi.  And, twenty two years later on January 03, 1900 their twelfth child, my grandmother was born.  My great grandfather passed away soon after my grandmother’s birth and Mama became the head of our family.

 My family sharecropped and like most sharecroppers, they did not make any money at it.  So, in the early 1930’s, my family and another family slipped out of Mississippi late one night.

 Both families came to Missouri looking for a better life for their families.  A few years later my family moved to the small country town of Wardell.  If you look on a map, you will see that this small country town is in Pemiscot County.

 In 1949 my parents separated and my brother and I were sent to live in Wardell with Mama and my grandmother.  At the tender age of four I had no idea that the time I spent in this small country town would leave such a lasting impression on my life.

 I refer to the six years I spent in the Missouri boot heel as my formative years.  During that time the unconditional love that those two women showed me laid the strongest foundation that anyone could lay for a child.  To this day I often reflect back on them.

 Mama was a storyteller and from the time I was five years old, I can remember her telling me stories.  I can remember us sitting on the front porch of the little wooden house that we lived in.  Mama would be sitting in her rocking chair and I always sat right next to her on my little wooden stool.   Every day I would sit on my little wooden stool and watch and wait patiently to hear a story.  The wait was always worth it, because she always told me the most entertaining stories.  To this day I still remember most of her stories.

 I started school in Wardell and I can remember getting off of that old beat up yellow school bus and running down the gravel road.  I would look to see if Mama was sitting on the front porch in her rocking chair, waiting to tell me a story.  Sometimes when my great grandmother told me stories she would tell them in such a way that I felt like I was there.  I became a part of that story.

 In the summer of 1952, Mama told me about her death, in her own way.  Mama said, “Baby I won’t be here with you come next summer.” I was a seven year old child and didn’t understand what she meant.  Some years after her death, I realized what Mama was trying to tell me that summer in 1952.  I also realized that I was probably the only person she spoke those words to.

 Mama’s health started to fail in the fall of 1952.  I knew that she was getting worse, when she stopped telling me stories.  She would get up every morning and sit in her rocking chair and rock, hum and chew on her snuff brush.

 Later that year she started to stay in bed all the time.  It was then, that I first admitted to myself that she may die.  Mama passed away about two months later.  She died around 5:30 in the morning, on January 24, 1953.

 Each time I tell the story of ELLEN, I talk about missing Mama and wondering who was going to replace her, then realizing that no one could or should replace her.  She left her gifts here for us to remember, use and enjoy.  In my program I say that “I believe the gift my great grandmother left me was the gift of storytelling”.  I have said this many times in the past 10+ years while sharing this story.  Each time I say it, I feel a peace within me.  I feel like I’m doing what Mama would have wanted me to do, “share the gift of storytelling”.

This story can be read in its entirety in “Stories from the Heart: Missouri’s African American Heritage,” complied by Gladys Coggswell, MHC 2010 Distinguished Literary Achievement Governors Award Winner.

 Loretta Washington is a gifted storyteller, workshop presenter, and READ from the START Discussion Leader and program advocate.  In her RFTS programs, Loretta encourages parents and caregivers to find their own inner storyteller and to share books and stories with young children.

 For more information about Loretta’s storytelling, please visit http://lorettawashingtonstoryteller.com/default.aspx

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