Meet Cora, the matriarch of a farming family in the late 1800s. Husband-less, due to her husband’s unfortunate choice to drink liquor and hunt – at the same time – Cora became the rock of her family. Left to care for three children, one of whom had a child and her sister-in-law, Louisa. Louisa, also husband-less, proper and intelligent, was a local teacher for kids age 5 through age 13.

Seeing as how Louisa wasn’t married, she was the responsibility of her brother, a poor shot when he drank, so the responsibility fell to Cora. Cora didn’t mind having Louisa around as she was helpful, taught the children how to read and write and that was more than she knew how to do to any great degree. Cora could barely read and write at a 3rd grade level, but she was a smart woman who navigated farming just fine when her husband, a poor shot when he drank, went dying on her.

Cora’s children, a daughter, Mabel, with a daughter, Alma and Cora’s two sons, Hubert and Willard all at some point in their lives or all their lives worked on the family farm. Small in comparison to the farms around their land, they only had 5 acres but the land was profitable enough to support the family with a modest income.

Mabel, whose husband was in the Army, had been sent to fight a “little Spanish war” and she’d been left to raise Alma on her own. Mabel and Alma lived in a small shack on the land and they spent much of their time at Cora’s house.

Hubert and Willard were done with school thank goodness and could help plant and harvest so Cora wasn’t forced to hire wanderers off the train that ran right through their property. Hubert, “the slow one,” as people used to say, was a happy and willing fellow. Willard, the middle of the three, was a hard worker but easily distracted.

When Willard wasn’t helping on the farm, which was all or part of 7 days a week, he could be found calling on a local girl he was sweet on named Miriam. Miriam was also sweet on Willard but they would wait years before they held hands or kissed, married and went on to have a house full of children.

Mabel’s husband returned from the war after two years and he and Mabel had fallen ill with yellow fever. Both died when Alma was just six. Cora raised Alma with the help of  Louisa. During Alma’s 16th year when she was independent Louisa would move a day’s trip away to teach at a school. Cora missed Louisa’s presence more than she cared to admit as Louisa had become a confidant and friend.

Hubert never married but his niece Alma, having seen the example of how Cora cared for family members, would carry on the tradition. She would keep Uncle Hubert in her home, giving him a blessed quality life for over 40 years; a place to belong.

Over the years in the family home Alma raised 6 children. Four born out of her body but all she called her own. Three of her brood spent their lives on the farm raising babies and taking care of Alma. Alma had appropriately passed the torch of matriarch to another willing and able woman in the long line of generationally strong women.

Since Cora’s husband, a poor shot when he drank, had died, the women in the family took charge and would be in charge for generations to come.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes