1. From a taped interview with Beatrice Wakenshaw Nov 2001: “Clara and I were in the same grade all through school in Kentucky. Clara was 6 yrs old when she started first grade. She had to walk about a mile or so through the woods and down a country road to the school house. Mom & dad didn’t want her to walk that far by herself, so they asked the school teacher if I could come with her. And see, I was four, so they said okay, but I would have to do the work. So I did the first grade work when I was four. When we came to Illinois, then Clara was in the second grade, and I had already been to first grade, so they put me in the second grade with her. And from then on through high school, we were in the same grade together. Some people thought we were twins.” [3]

2. July 4, 2002, Springfield, Illinois: I received a call from my father this evening. He has been in Illinois since earlier this week to visit his Aunt Clara. She has been in failing health these last several months and Dad wanted to go see her before she got worse. Well, as fate would have it, she did just that, and passed away the afternoon of July 4th. But not before Dad got to visit with her. I'm glad he went when he did, and I know he is too. Aunt Clara was a special person to us all, and she will be missed dearly.

As I sit here writing this, I'm thinking of the many good times I had growing up. Visiting Aunt Clara meant you got to go up to the railroad tracks behind their house and put pennies on the tracks. It meant fish frys in the backyard with all the family, and the many Thanksgiving dinners we all had there. It was the bubble lights on her Christmas tree every year, and the homemade peanut brittle.

I'll never forget the time she taught me a lesson about money. When I was young, I had come across some real silver quarters from my Grandpa Wakey's piggy bank. Aunt Clara offered to give me a dollar bill for every five of my silver quarters. She was a smooth talker and eventually we struck a deal. I forget how many I had, but it was several dollars worth. She paid me, and we were both happy. It wasn't until I got home a week later that I received in the mail, a check for the rest of the money she owed. Along with the check was a letter (that I still have) telling me that I was basically taken to the cleaners by my Aunt. She apologized for misleading me, but also told me she hoped I had learned a lesson. Boy, did I! We both got a laugh out of that one for many years to come.

Whenever you got a card or letter from Aunt Clara, she always managed to end it with a weather report. I joked with her about it once, and from then on, she went out of her way to make sure the weather report was included in her letters and cards. She even sent me a post card one time, just to tell me what the weather was like. No other news, just the weather. I still have that one too.

I was so glad I got to visit and laugh with her one more time last November. If she could send me a weather report now, I already know what it would say. She would tell me that the rain has finally stopped and all of her bad weather has gone. It's sunny and clear now, and it's going to stay that way forever.