Mary Rosetta Jarrell and Her Last Trip to Konawa

                The matriarch of the Rainey family, Mary Rosetta Jarrell, was born on March 7, 1868, in Stoddard County, Missouri. Rosa, the name by which she was called, lived to be 85 years old, passing away on May 28, 1953. She lived 44 of those years in the Bend.
                I rediscovered a photo and discussed with Mother, Bernyce Smith Gates, the family excursion on July 8, 1950,* three years before her grandmother’s death. Mother had taken the photo when Lewis Rainey, her uncle, drove her grandmother, “Rosa” Rainey, her mother, Gladys Rainey Smith, and two aunts, Alice Rainey and Emma Rainey Buckley to Konawa.

In front of the car are Mrs. John Townsend and Mary Rosetta Jarrell Rainey.
The arm of Uncle Lewis Rainey is visible on the driver's side of the car.
On the right side of the car are Alice Rainey, Gladys Rainey Smith, and
Emma Rainey Buckley. My mother took the photograph on the family's 
visit to Konawa.

                Konawa had been the home of the Rainey family before they moved to Pawnee County and ultimately to the Bend. Mother laughed when I mentioned that Aunt Daisy Rainey Rice wasn’t in the photograph. She said, “I don’t think she ever went back.” I told her I recalled Aunt Daisy’s lament over her parents selling their place to the Townsend family. My grandma would chide her for regretting the sale.** The primary reason stemmed from the oil discovery on the land their father, Bill Rainey, sold.
                My grandma may have been glad to leave that region of Oklahoma. Several blogs highlighted Grandma’s shenanigans while living in Seminole County. One account tells of Grandma getting fed up with a visiting family’s daughter and how she took the matter into her own hands. It can be accessed at https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-staycation-that-went-horribly-wrong.html
                Earlier this year, Konawa figured prominently in the republished blog post about the marriage of Daisy and her husband, Ernest Rice. It included the disagreement between Rosa and Bill over relocating from Konawa to Pawnee and Osage Counties. This blog is at https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-wedding-disaster.html
                The picture provided a study in car styles of the 1950s. Uncle Lewis Rainey was fastidious about most things; from his barn and crops to his garden and lawn to even his well-kept striped overalls. I was not surprised that he drove the family to Konawa in his Chrysler. Only his left sleeve and hat are visible in the photograph.
                I wonder from what millinery shop the four hats came. Even Great Grandma Rainey’s hat stylishly coordinated with her dress. Aunt Alice and Aunt Emma wore tastefully chic hats. Yet I so wish the voguish hat worn by my grandma had been preserved. The saucer fascinator chosen by Grandma screams to me, “Try me on!” I love hats and sometimes long for the days when hats were all the rage. How I wish that hat had been saved 

in her small millinery collection!                 

Alice Rainey, Gladys Rainey Smith, and Emma
Rainey Buckley and their hats.

               My grandma and her siblings always seemed considerably older to me. Yet on this family trip to a childhood home, their ages surprised me. Uncle Lewis was 56 years old, Grandma was almost 50 years old, Alice was 48 years of age, and Aunt Emma, the youngest in the family was only 47 years old. My mother, the one behind the camera, was merely 25 years old.
                Looking at those ages reminded me that all these older family members were so much younger than my age now. King David’s Psalm 39, verse 4 seemed appropriate for this recollection. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to pen this prayer,

                 Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days,

that I may know how frail I am.

              Then David asked the question of the Lord in verse 7 of chapter 39 and responded immediately with confidence in his reliance on the God he served. This question/answer sequence gave David assurance despite his fleeting human frailty.

And now, Lord, what do I wait for?

My hope is in You.

                Our faulty human weaknesses make us so aware only our Creator and Lord can extend the much-needed hope that we so crave. The phrase from Colossians 1:27 gives the surety of the great desire of our hearts for hope.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Only in the sacrificial death of Christ for us do we glimpse what we most desire and most need. Although hardly imaginable, He extends His gift of loving forgiveness that gives us hope to know our end with certainty because we have made Him the Source of our hope.

*This date held significance for my grandma for two other reasons. Grandma noted exactly one year later Alice, her sister, died. Mother's little dilapidated diary has written on July 8, 1978,  "Aunt Daisy's funeral at 10:30 a.m. today."

**Interestingly, my grandpa would tell Grandma that she had to "live within sight of the Belford Schoolhouse." He seemed to think she was too attached to the Bend.