A Lesson in Thomas Family History

Christopher's grandparents came from North Carolina.  His grandmother (Glenna) grew up in Eden, NC, which is just two hours away from our house.  Shortly after Christmas, his dad and mom took Glenna to Eden.  She has Alzheimer's, but it seems that every time any of us went to see her, she talked about wanting to go visit.  They knew she would probably forget if they went and might not even understand what was going on, but they wanted to give her that trip to see that sparkle of familiarity, even just for a moment.

Christopher really wanted to go along ever since Glenna began mentioning the trip, but he had a week-long class the day after Christmas.  His dad is on a sabbatical this month (the first one he has ever allowed himself!), so we made the trip today.  I think it was really special for Chris to go with his dad and bring his own son (Eliot) along with him.

Eliot's middle name is Thomas--after Glenna's maiden name.  First, we went to Eliot's great-great grandfather's house, James Oscar Thomas.  This beautiful house (with amazing grounds) has been maintained, added onto, and turned into a restaurant.  The owner knew we were coming and met us to give us a tour of the house.  While it looks huge from the outside, it actually was just a three-bedroom home with a den and (maybe) kitchen.

After lunch, we headed over to one of the previously-owned homes.  That is, James Oscar did not raise all of his children in this larger, white farm house.  Instead, Glenna and her brothers and sisters (all eight of them!) mostly grew up in this house.  Chris's dad remembered visiting this house frequently and told stories of playing on the porch and in the very hot boys' room upstairs.

When we got there, Chris's dad knocked on the front door to explain why we were taking photos outside--we didn't want anyone to get worried or confused.  The lady was actually really nice and understanding.  Then she invited us in!  She came over from Belgium and casually mentioned that we weren't the first to come by.   Instead, she said we were about the third group of people saying this was their family members' house.  "What is this?" she asked, "A historical monument?!"  It was quite funny because Chris's dad immediately knew which of our family members had been by.

It's really neat that Chris has this, and that Eliot will have these photos.  How often do you go back to your great-great grandparents' house to be served lunch?

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