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(Updated 6 March 1999. I have gotten wonderful responses regarding this page. But people are asking me to more or less footnote some of the material so they understand who some of the people are and what some of the things are in context which Grandmother mentions. I don't know exactly how to do this but I will try. If what I do doesn't work out, shucks! I will try another method. My comment will end with CB.)

This page has copies of letters from Minnie Jane Henderson Griffin. (18 Aug. 1884 - 18 July 1981) I am writing them exactly as she did regarding the spelling and the punctuation. Grandmother drew 3 lines after her salutation and I am using the equal sign in place of those 3 lines. Each of these five letters is from her home in Waycross, Georgia. And the last one is from the nursing home there in Waycross.




Monday P.M. Aug. 26, 1968

Dear Wayne= I was supprised and so pleased to get a letter from you and I am so glad your Mother and Rhonda has moved in with me. for I can stay home every night and I do enjoy sleeping in my own bed but I am afraid they wont stay long for I cant have a T.V. and most every one wants one, but the church don't allow its members to have musical things in their houses and I have had a name with that church for most 60 years and have never given them any trouble and I hate to turn back now for that is almost all the pleasure I see now and I don't have much longer here
(Mother's second marriage ended in divorce and she and Rhonda had to move in with Grandmother. CB)

page 2

and I would be glad your Mother & Rhonda could be satisfied a little longer but I know it is tough on them. ---Rhonda has been gone a week today she is visiting some of her old friends around Homerville but we are looking for her to come home today or tomorrow.---I have heard people say that the ones that are with you the most are the ones that you love most but I love all my grandchildren but I can think of so many things you did and said, it all come back to me so plain some times

page 3

like the time your Mother was gone to see Alice and you stayed home and kept house for your Dad & we had a dinner at my house and you cooked a cake and brought it for me to put icing on it and every one said it was the best cake we had. Oh, I can think of so many things you children did and to think I have not seen Ronald in over 7 years, but I don't expect to see him any more.(Alice was living in Hopkinsville, KY. I remember walking with that cake to her house.)

I still miss your grandaddy but I had to give him up.

I feel sorry for your Mother for she give up most every thing she had when she married Charlie and now she will have to start (Mother's marriage to said "Charlie" was a disaster and since we were taught that divorce is a sin, she stuck it out beyond what was healthy for her. In fact she had a breakdown over it and had to be hopitalized. CB)

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all over again if she leaves here. ---if she stays here I want her to have my stove and Freezer and my sewing machine for all the rest has those things. she had a good Freezer but when it was moved it quit running and they say it will cost 1 hundred and 25 dollars to have it fixed so it is in the wash house. I wish she could have it fixed, it still looks new.---Arthur and Phillis are getting along good and they have a sweet little girl. Dennis says he has a little red car. I don't know what make but it is a foreign make. I hope he takes good care of it for he will need it when he comes home. I will hush for now (Arthur and Phyllis' daughter is Pamela Denise.)

Love Grannie G.

(This letter was postmarked, "Waycross, GA Aug 27 1 PM 1968 31501")



Thursday Sept 16 1971

Dear Wayne=

I was so glad to get a letter from you but sorry to learn of your operation.---Your Mother says she is better but she can't sleep good dennis went back to School yesterday he was almost sick with a cold I hated to see him go, and too we miss him so much. (Dennis, home from the Navy with his little red car which Grandmother loved to ride around in with the top down, was enrolled at Valdosta State College. CB)

Rhonda is O.K. again and seems so happy.---you will have to excuse my writing for my eyes are so bad I can hardly write and my nerves are bad too.

of course it is not my age ha! just 87. My hearing is poor and my sight is dim most every thing seems out of trim but I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in. (ha ha.

page 2

Wayne I can't think of any thing to write you but Jack Griffin's address is 512 Kenwood dr. waycross Ga. he has 4 or 5 books that he bought from Folks Huxford in Homerville he wrote the books and had them printed. Jack brought his Books for Me to read they were interesting but he has them back now but if you want any of the books just write Mr. Huxford at Homerville, he is real old and says he can't write any more but I think he has these Books for sale. he is a Lawyer, (Judge also) Well I will hush and try to fix your Mother and me some Supper (I was very excited to hear that these relatives were also interested in our family's genealogy. I called to talk with them and was told by the person who answered that they had just been killed in a car accident. I will always wonder how much I missed by not ever connecting to Jack and Flora. CB)

come to see us

Love

Granny Griffin

Mother wrote this on the bottom of the letter: "Jack said to write him he would sure (over) like to hear from you. He's one of the Griffins I wish you could meet. He & his wife."

(This letter is postmarked, "Waycross, GA Sep 17 AM 1971 31501")



Monday, Nov.,18, 19.74

Hi Bill=

I was pleasantly surprised to get the books you sent for there is nothing I like better than reading altho I can't read long at a time for I am going blind as you can see by my writing, but I have always wanted a Pilgrim Progress and I enjoy reading it so much. Myrtle enjoys reading them as much as I do and I thank you so much. would be glad for you boys to come see us some time and thank you again
(Bill bought the large print addition for Grandmother. And next to her Bible and her psalm "song" book, it was her treasure. CB)

Grannie Griffin

(This was written on a blank Hallmark card to Gordon William "Bill" Huott. It was postmarked "U.S. POSTAL SERVICE GA 315 NOV 19 PM 1974".)



April 15 1975

Hi Wayne=and Bill too

Wayne I was so glad to get your letter (card Rather) and I am glad you are getting along good but as for me I am not as spry as I would like to be but I should not complain at my age I am nearly blind and nearly deaf. Now isn't that a fix to be in, my mind is not as good as it used to be---I am liable to put the toilet tissue in the refrigerator and the butter in the bath room but (Pshaw) I won't complain at my age I am liable to do any thing. And I want to be thankful I am as well off as I am, and I hope you live as long as I have I am 90 and can still walk to the mail box and back (Three expressions Grandmother used were: "pshaw", "shucks", and "I swanee". CB)

page 2

We have had lots of rain our gardens are drowned but the sun is shining to day alice wrote us that she & Charles were coming this weekend as he has to go to Augusta to be gone all next week and he will bring her here and then go back to Augusta to attend some business but Thyra wrote me that alice called her Sat. night and said she had the flu and she didn't know if she would be able to come or not but she has no one to stay with her. I am looking for her to come if she can sit up. Oh! My doll sits in a rocker by my bed and seems to be happy. I'll hush for Now for my eyes are getting too dim (Thyra was living in Fitzgerald, GA. In December of 1974 I sent Grandmother a Holley Hobbey doll in an old fashioned outfit. On the outside of the parcel it said, "Do not open till Christmas." But she was so excited about the gift she tore right into it and discovered the doll. She loved it immediately. My brother Dennis' daughter, Nancy now has it. CB)

come to see us

Love Granny Griffin (over)

On back of page 2

I forgot to tell you that your Mother got caught on the jury this week. And the court house is a stranger to her. And I forgot to tell you the Henderson reunion is on the 27th of this month it will be at Laura Walker Park on that Sunday, By Granny

(This letter is postmarked, "U.S. POSTAL SERVICE GA 315 APR 16 P M 1975".)



(This letter is not dated but the envelope is postmarked, "MANOR GA 31550 FEB 28 P.M. 1976" on the front and on the back, "HOBOKEN NJ 07030 FEB 29 PM 1976.")

Thursday Morning

High: how is my grand son this morning? I would have writtin before now but my eyes are so dim I can hardly see the lines some days they are a little better I hope you can read this. it is bad but I guess it will do for a 91 year old girl.---Your Mother come yesterday Morning and packed her dishes. she is so anxious to get in their new one till it keeps her excited. I am afraid she will over do things. I am glad they have a home of their own and she likes it so much, they got the papers on the place yesterday so now it is their home I passed by it but didn't go in for the people are still in it but they hope to get out the

page 2

last of this week or the first of next. Thyra called me and told me to tell your Mother if she needed her to help her to move to let her know and she will come help her so your Mother wrote right back and sent her Bus fare, I am glad for she needed some one to help her for she is weak and she has to go back to Augusta Monday for another treatment and and then come right back. and that is bad on her. I recon people will think she & I had a row and I put them out but not so for I can't hardly bear the thought but I do want her to have a place of her own.
(Mother had remarried and was moving from Grandmother's to a house she and her "new" husband had bought. For Grandmother it was bittersweet. CB)

Dennis saw the house when he was here and he liked it I will have to hush now for I can't see the lines give my regards to Bill and come back. We enjoyed having you both

Love Granny Griffin




Tuesday Feb. 1 19.77

Hi Wayne & Bill =

I was pleasantly surprised to get your letter and to hear you are both well. I am doing very well only I can't hardly see, as you can tell---my writing is real bad as you can tell but I can't do any better I havn't heard from your mother since last week but they were doing very well then.

Belva came by yesterday, she was on her way to Bleakshear to a Ball game. she comes about once a week. and for a change the Dr. came this morning and felt of my ankles and he had just left and I looked up and there stood a man in the door. looking at me, he has Just come to this place and he gets confused

(This is from the nursing home. Belva is grandmother's granddaughter, daughter of Marguerite and Leland Booth. CB)
Page 2

We all get along good so far we have not had any fights yet I think they have some kind of entertainment every day and these old women folks dress up like girls they wear pants suit and Beads and some of the men wear white shirts and ties but most of them don't have any mind. they are like me but we all have sense enough to eat. and some of them have their wives. I have been about 2 hours writing this letter and if you don't get another you will know the reason Blind & deaf & can't hardly hear can't smell. But it is a pretty day after so much rain and some snow over (this "over" is circled)

page 3 (on the back of page 2)

Alice said they had 16 inches of snow and still snowing but it is a beautiful day here now.---I get to wanting to go home so bad sometime then I'll think what is the use they are good to me here and I don't even have to wash a plate Well I will have to quit my left eye has gone out. let me hear from you onse in a while

Love Granny Griffin

The front of the envelope reads, "Mr. Wayn C. Boyd 126 Hackett place Ruther Ford. N.Y. 7070" and is dated Waycross GA 315 FEB 1977. On the back she has written, Mrs. J.D. Griffin Riverside Ave. Box 201 31501 Waycross Ga"



Grandmother read the "Waycross Journal Herald" to my Grandfather every day. She loved to read and she loved hearing the news from the paper. She also loved "Little House on the Prairie" but she could not turn the t v on. If someone else turned it on she would watch it, due to the church rules. After she was in the Nursing Home, it would be turned on and all the family there would gather to watch. Grandmother never did for she never knew if her Elder would come and see her doing this forbidden thing. IRONY, the Elder never visited her the entire time that she was there according to my Aunt Alice.
The last time I ever saw her was in the Nursing Home. As Bill and I were leaving she walked with us holding our hands to the front of the building where there were rocking chairs on the porch. She embraced each of us and said, "You boys come back and see me."
At this point I did three last things with her: I kissed her for the last time in my life; I told her I loved her "I love you too, son."; and with tears got into the car. I turned and looked at her for the last time as well and waved goodbye. She then sat in a rocker and kept waving bye as we drove away.

Click here to see Henderson Cemetery in Pierce County, GA.

I added this counter on 6 March 1999.