A Keys Keepsake

I thought I’d do something a little different for the start of the year.  I’m not stopping the vintage photos with stories, but I thought I’d do something different from time to time.  I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while and now is a good time to start.  So this the the first of the Keepsake Throwback Thursdays.  The more I talk to people about family history and such, the more I find out about different treasures that have been passed down through the generations.  I am hoping to take photos of some keepsakes that other people have so they can be shared with the family.  Just like the old photos, you can share them and keep your treasure at the same time.

This week I’m going back to the 1880s in England.  It was a time before all of our modern conveniences.  It was a time before this branch of the family had left Europe.  It was a time of myths and legends, kings and castles.  Yes, you heard that right, castles.  (You also heard the myth part, too, right!?)

In 1883 my great great grandmother Martha Ann Cook Keys had a problem on her hands.  Her second son Leonard, who was 10 at the time, had come down with diphtheria.  It is a very dangerous disease and in fact a few years earlier in England, two members of the royal family had died from it.  So it was a scary situation.

She called a doctor to see to her ailing son, but the doctor just wanted to know if her husband was home.  When she inquired as to why he was asking this, the doctor said that Leonard would probably die that night.  The doctor left without offering any hope, but Martha did not give up.  She decided to take the situation into her own hands, literally.  She put a finger down Leonard’s throat to break the membrane that can form and kill a person.  It was a risk, because this could also lead to hemorrhaging.  She was fortunate that it did not and Leonard began to recover.

His recovery took a while, so Martha sent him to stay with her Aunt Jane for a while.  She must have been a very important person because she lived in a castle.  Or so goes the family legend.  I have not been able to find any resources that proved that the family owned a castle at one time.  But I haven’t found any that proved that we didn’t either.  My mom always seemed to believe that there was a family castle, so it must be true. It was while he was recovering in the lavish luxuries (minus modern conveniences, of course) of the family castle that he did this cross-stitch sampler.

For those of you a little older than me, you may remember this item hanging in the house of Daisy Keys Phenice.  Mama said that is was hanging in her house for YEARS before it was given to her by her grandmother Daisy.  And that is why it is still in my family.  It was given to my great grandmother by her brother because he undoubtedly wanted her to have it.  For those younger than me, one day I will pass it on to someone deserving.  Or at least desiring!