On March 24, 2013, Anna and Mike Himes, with Ryan, Molly, and Leela, had a great Palm Sunday dinner with Al and I here at Willow Valley. Ryan was full of news about crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scout activities, which included a 10 mile hike the day before.
As usual, I took the kids back to our apartment when they were finished eating so Anna, Mike, and Al could enjoy some adult conversation and a leisurely dessert. I explained to them some of the family photos on my study walls and on my website, including the one taken on August 29, 1977, my Grandmother Styer’s 92nd birthday, of five generations of our family when their mother was about the same age as Leela is now.
When the adults came I began a process of heirloom distribution that had been forming in my head for a long time. I gave Leela the locket which had belonged to Emma Elizabeth Bair Herr (1877-1953), my Grandmother Styer’s sister, because Leela’s middle name is also Elizabeth, as was my mother’s, Florence Elizabeth Styer Evans (1904-1998). It had my mother’s teeth marks on the back from when she was a baby!
I gave Molly a choice of two necklaces. She chose the one made of the watch fob of Aunt Emma’s husband, Uncle John L. Herr (1873-1949). That means the locket will go to cousin Evelyn Rachel Shirer, Becky and Dan’s daughter. This one belonged to Aunt Blanche Evans (1867-1945), my Grandfather Hiram Evans’ sister, and contains a daguerreotype photograph of her Grandfather Hiram Evans (1795-1879), who was born during George Washington’s administration (1789-1797). Mother’s grandmother was Rachel Elizabeth Diller Bair!
Ryan Evan Himes received the pocket watch of my Grandfather, David H. Styer (1882-1952), which my mother had mounted on a small stand. In 1916 he had started a Real Estate and Insurance Agency in New Holland on his dining room table which became Styer and Evans when my Dad, James Herbert Evans (1904-1965), became a partner in 1926, the year I was born.
After the history lesson the Himes went swimming. The kids play swimming games very well together and need little more than supervision from Mike. It gives Anna and I a chance to catch up on all the family news.
Afterwards Mike showed recent videos of the kids school and scout activities, and they returned to Macungie with their little snack bags and, I hope, meaningful memories of a day which to me was another step in the process of connecting them to the family I knew when I was their ages
