Violet McQuerry became Cutters in her grandmother years. She had a knack for keeping up with birthdays. Like me, cousins would receive a sweet, greeting card each year with a handwritten note in which she would wish happy birthday and provide a slice of life couple of paragraphs from her world. Friends coming to call, the weather and the like.
I remember many years she enclosed a check, never more than $5 or $10. At some point, I stopped cashing them because I liked having the check, itself. This was well before mobile deposits and the thought of forfeiting the money never outweighed wanting to keep her gift – just as it was. Invariably, she ended her notes with a signature. Not just her signed name, I mean. Her signature appears below:
She gave me her first birthday book. A pocket-sized “Tennyson Birthday Book” made in England and sprinkled with quotes throughout the daily, lined sections for recording details. She received it from her maternal Aunt Pearl upon graduating high school in 1930. I believe this was the foundation of Cutters’ lifelong practice of recording and commemorating important family dates.
I found this book helpful in clarifying some answers to questions that were eluding me. And, numerous opportunities to read between the lines of love. Cutters’ love.
that Kentucky girl 