| "I remember a Kate Kelly ... living at the top of the hill near my grandparents' farm. She was a friend of my grandmother's and they had a security arrangement after Kate became a widow. Grandma would get out her "field glasses" and scan the hilltop from time to time through the day. If Kate had a problem, she was to hang red longjohns on the clothesline. Even as a kid, I could see the problems here if Mrs. Kelly fell and couldn't make it to the clothesline. When Carla and I were at the farm in summer, we would collect Mrs. Kelly's mail from the mailbox and trudge up that l-o-o-o-o-n-g hill to deliver it. The other thing I remember is that, every Christmas, my Baptist grandfather and uncle would hitch the horse to the cutter, struggle up the hill, load Mrs. Kelly in beside us kids, wrap us in a buffalo robe and take Mrs. Kelly to a nearby town where her son would pick her up to take her to Christmas mass. She would visit with her son for a few days and then the trip would be done all over again. I find it strange that, if Grandma and Mrs. Kelly were this close and neighbourly, there was never an indication to any of the family that there was actually a blood relationship. (Maybe my grandparents didn't know either because a couple of generations had passed.) I understand that one of Kate Kelly's sons or grandsons is a barber in nearby Trenton here and, one day, when I have a chance to get caught up on things, I will hunt him up and see what--if anything--the Kellys knew about the connection. I understand that, in those days, if you got crossed out of the family bible, you were really never spoken of again, so there is a good chance this is the explanation. I don't have any idea if the Kelly/Kelley family would do the same thing too in that day and age." (Linda van Will)1 |