Ladies in Hats...

05/09/2010

I am not sure what sparked this memory, but for some reason as I pondered this being Mother’s Day thoughts of my grandmother crept into my head.  The funny part of this is, my grandmother passed away in 1966.

Roberta (Bertie) Ellen Davis was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1898.  Her father, Dr. Willard Quincy Adams Graham, was a Methodist preacher.  The “Doctor” part was, I suppose, a doctorate in religious studies.  Bertie, as everyone called her, was a piece of work.  She stood tall and full of pride in whom she was, and she was the widow of Thomas Settle Davis, another Methodist preacher.  She was a beautiful woman who on each of my birthdays gave me a dollar.

My fondest memories of her all have her wearing a hat with a pocketbook draped over her arm, head held high, walking down the aisle of Andrew Chapel Methodist Church in Baltimore where she would proudly take her usual seat in the first pew.  It was as though she were royalty, people just seemed to give way when she entered the sanctuary, she just commanded respect for who she was.  I suppose that is why my dad always referred to her as “Ms Davis.”

In my youth everyone dressed in their finest for church and all the ladies wore hats to church.  “Matchbook” seems to stick out in my mind as what the type of hat she typically wore, or was it “Pillbox?” Now I am not so sure I have any idea what the hell I am talking about, but I do remember at Easter the ladies wore big, flowing hats, some with veils, but Grandmother did not.  She just wore the regular, everyday some kind of Box hat.

Is it possible to miss someone who has been gone for forty-four years?  I think it must be so.  I miss Bertie.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.  Thanks for being who and what you are. 

And that is all I have to say about that…