Tiny Mother Of Nine

My grandmother, Harriet Elizabeth “Hattie” (née Pattan) Byer was a tiny woman, just under five feet tall…in her tall days, but if you think that made her a “weakling” you had better think again. This tiny mother of nine children ruled her roost quite well, thank you. Anytime one of her kids, young or older, thought they could get the best of her, they quickly found out that they would be picking themselves up off the floor. One time, her daughter, my Aunt Bonnie McDaniels jokingly told her mom that she couldn’t take her anymore. Aunt Bonnie was a grown woman by then, but her mom quickly reached down and grabbed Aunt Bonnie’s ankles, lifting her feet off the floor. From her new, now seated on the floor position, Aunt Bonnie’s mouth dropped open in shock. Of course, Aunt Bonnie wasn’t actually being disciplined. They both knew they had been joking, but Aunt Bonnie knew that her mom could “take her” down.

In those days of raising children, women didn’t just go down to the store to buy bread and such. One of the first things done in the mornings was to get the bread set so that by afternoon, it was ready to bake. If the bread didn’t get set, there would be no bread with dinner, or for any other meal. Of course, with nine children, sometimes, Grandma’s bread making task was a little bit delayed, while she nursed a hungry little one. Then, there was the laundry to do. With a large family, I would imagine that the laundry was also a daily task. There had to be mountains of laundry to do each day, and then, mountains of clean clothes to hang on the line to dry. Then, there were the meals to prepare. Soup was often the meal of the day, and the best soup simmers for a long time. After the meals, there were mountains of dishes to wash, a task which found all the kids singing while they worked. While there was a lot of work to be done in a household with so many people, the result was a lifetime of sweet memories for those who lived there. And memories is whhat it’s all about, right.

Grandma was the seventh child in a family of ten children, born to George and Estella (née Shaw) Pattan on February 26, 1909. She also had an older half-sister, making the family total eleven children. She was named after her grandmother, Elizabeth (née Schuck) Pattan, which was an honor to be sure. Tradition is big in most families, and Grandma Byer’s family was no exception. Today is the 116th anniversary of Grandma Byer’s birth. Happy birthday in Heaven, Grandma Byer. We love and miss you very much.