My Dad’s Mom and Sisters
I love this old photo of my grandmother and aunts. It was taken some time around 1939 and it was probably taken in Lake Charles somewhere. The only thing I don’t like about the photo is that their feet don’t show in the photo. I’m not particularly fond of feet. It’s just that if you’re going to take a full length photo of a group of people, get the whole person (or persons) in the photo. This was long before phones with cameras or digital photos with instant results to check, so I guess I’ll have to forgive them. It would also have been nice to see the group centered in the photo. Oh, well, at least they took this wonderful photo.
My dad came from a somewhat large family. There were eight children, with four boys and four girls. I’ve shared a photo of the male members of the family previously. The photos look like they were taken the same day. The background is the same, the lighting looks the same, and the border is the same. But instead of a father with his four sons in the previous photo, this one is of a mother with her four daughters.
But it’s not just any old mother in the photo. This is my beloved paternal grandmother who we all called Mee Maw. Her given name was Germaine Erie Patureau. She married Robert Joseph (Rob or Bob) Landry, Sr. and then went by Erie Landry. The first child of this couple was their oldest daughter Marie Therese Landry. Aunt Marie is shown on the far left in the photo. She would later marry Malloy Reeves, and they had one son named Mark. The next daughter born to Rob and Erie was Germaine Erie. Aunt Germaine can be seen to the right of Mee Maw in the darker dress. She would later marry Ross Winn, and they had three children.
The third daughter of Erie and Rob was Wana Lidwin. She can be seen on the far right in the photo. She would later marry Norman Duffy. Aunt Wana and Uncle Duffy had six children. The youngest of the girls – though not the youngest of the eight – was little Frances Mae. Aunt Frances or Framay would later marry Joseph Raley. Aunt Framay and Uncle Joe had five children.
These lovely ladies and warm, nurturing women are a strong emotional backbone for our family. That stood out particularly clearly to me in regard to the death of my sister Jodie in 1989. These four sisters were not there just for their brother, they were there for all the family. They were such a great example of what family can do for one another. They still are.