Did You Know?

Earlier I wrote about your great grandmother Betty Jane going to live with her Aunt Grace.  I mentioned that I would share a story about her.  She would be your great great great Aunt on my family tree.  As I mentioned earlier she was a very devout Catholic.  My Grandpa Hickey was her younger brother.  She married Bill Ellis in 1917 when she was 29 and he 27.  They had one son named Robert.  The story goes, according to my mom, that she wanted Robert to be a Catholic Priest and when he finished high school he left to a seminary in California.  Aunt Grace was so proud and excited but Robert didn't share her passion and after a short time he called his dad to share his desire to return home.  He sent Robert money and he returned home.  Aunt Grace was so angry with Uncle Bill that she packed all his clothes and put them on the door step.  Forgiveness was not to be given and eventually Uncle Bill sued for divorce and married another woman.  Aunt Grace was Catholic so of course she considered his marriage invalid, but she had to also deal with the reality of her decision.  By this time she was  her early 50's and needed a means to support herself.  She decided to go to school and eventually became a nurse.  Much of her time after becoming a nurse was in McAllen, Texas.  She worked into her late 60's and then came back to Arizona and eventually lived with Robert and his wife and their two sons until she died.  I used to love listening to the stories she told about being a nurse.  Aunt Grace was very unique and I, like my mother, loved having Aunt Grace around.  She was a good woman who had a interesting outlook on life.  She died in 1969 at the age of 82.