A TRAGIC STORY

  This picture was taken around 1900. My great grandfather Henry Thompson Brown B-1850 D-1918 is seated on the right. My great grandmother Celana Caldonie Sherrill Brown B-1851 D-1933 is seated on the left. Everyone called her Donie. My mother was named after her and my granddaughter Donie was named after my mother. They had 13 children together of which only 9 survived to adulthood. Twins died not long after they were born. My grandfathers brother Milford Brown is standing top right and his wife Virginia is holding their youngest son on the left. Tragically Millford and Virginia both contracted tuberculosis, or consumption as it was called then. They both died within weeks of each other in 1914 and are buried in Calvary Catholic cemetery which is next to Mount Olivet cemetery. Virginia was Catholic and Milford converted to Catholicism after they were married. Their three orphaned boys were sent to Catholic orphanages. Two were sent to a Nashville orphanage and one was sent to a Memphis orphanage. The two that ended up in Nashville grew up to live productive lives and I had the pleasure of meeting two of my cousins who are their grandchildren. The boy that ended up in Memphis turned out to be a juvenile delinquent and after he left the orphanage he was never heard from again. When I found out about this story it made me realize how fortunate my brother Mark and I was after the death of our parents. If not for our Aunt Didi taking us in we could have suffered the same fate.