Family Remembrances

This seems to be a time for checking family genealogy, family stories. . we all have interesting family members and remember stories passed down. These are some of the stories we remember and will share with you.
My father's Mother was a proud, tall Jewish woman from New York who met her husband. . he was twenty years older. .whle he was on a business trip. He was a lawyer and a surveyer. She married him over the furious objections of her family. . he was NOT Jewish. . and her family promptly held a service for her and pronounced her dead to the rest of them. A few years later when she had two children, she wanted to go back to New York and introduce them to her family. They cabled back that they had no daughter and that was it. She carried that bitter memory to her death at ninety plus. So where did she live? In Utah. . Mormon territory! A Jewish woman in Utah! Whoah. She never had much to do with the Mormon faith and raised her children Jewish, which seemed to be all right with her husband.

One incident: She was looking out the window and saw her two year old sitting on the ground with his cereal bowl putting one scoop in his mouth and one scoop in the mouth of a creature also sitting across from him. She looked closer and saw that it was a curled up snake and seemed to be a very big snake. Horrified, she grabbed a gun from the shelf, raced out the door, aimed the gun at the snake. . and watched. Again, one scoop for the baby, one scoop for the snake and the snake was actually eating the much. She was a crack shot but. . . She continued to watch and crept closer. Finally the mush was all gone and bby waved the empty spoon. The snake uncurled and slithered away. In her gratitude for the snake's not harming her child, she did not kill it. But baby did not eat his breakfast out in the yard anymore.

Another incident about this incredible woman: All the women of the ranch were washing their hair outside. It was an all day process. The time period is in the late 1800's and water had to be heated and carried and all the women had hair either down to their waists or clear down to the ground when they stood. A small group of six or seven Indians rode up on horses whooping and hollaring scattering all the women back into the house EXCEPT for Mary Eliza. She held her ground and continued to wash her hair. The lead Indian jumped off his horse and demanded to know why she wasn't scared out of her wits. She looked at him and replied, "Scared of WHAT?" Whereupon he drops his loin cloth and says, "Of this!" . . Exhibiting his manhood. She lookied at it calmly and stated laughing. He did not know what to do. . kill her or. . then he started laughing and they were both nearly choking. He climbs back on his horse, she stands up shaking out her hair and he tells her that they have watched her riding bareback over the hills and fields. And, that they will always protect her from now on. And they did. She was an expert horsewoman, her husband had many horses. . in fact he introduced Arabians to the state of Utah where they continue to thrive.