I think this is a wonderful idea.Hope everyone joins in.I love to read
about all Cady's.
Marietta E. Cady 1916 - 1997
My favorite Cady is my Mother Marietta E. Cady [ born 1916] daughter of Ira
and Elizabeth Spaulding Cady.Growing up with this Cady Lady I knew her well
and loved hearing her tell about the days gone by when she was a
kid.Counting her there was eleven children in her family.Two adopted whom
were first cousins.She worked beside her Father in the fields and in the
barns hand milking the cows. Quite often alone with him.Most of the older
children seeked outside jobs by this time.I thought it was unreal when she
had to empty the straw out of her bed wetting brother's mattress and dry
the cover on the line. From there later in the day when dried she refilled
it with clean straw.
She would talk about it being the greatest thing when Christmas came that
her Father would buy oranges and hide them in the cellar along side of all
the jars of canned food her Mother put up for the winter.She also helped in
this garden to produce the food for canning.Presents for Christmas was few
but to her the oranges was a big thing. She was a brave child when she had
to help her two brothers clean up their father's head when he either shot
himself or the gun went off by accident in the barn. Back then the family
usually had to do this. They never knew what really happened.She talked
about the Docter giving her grandmother whiskey and then operating on her
on the kitchen table while all the kids had to stay outdoors and still
could hear her screams.
She carried the fruit idea down at xmas time to her seven children. In our
early years we had few gifts but lots of fruit and a large dinner.We never
went hungry.She could take what little there was in the cupboards and make
a good large meal.When she married for the first time,her and her first
husband worked side by side on their farm plus raising their three
babies.She was married less then five years when he died in her arms on the
way to the hospital at the age of 27.She continued on running the farm with
her babies at her side.The children she would send to school, do the
milking, go to the house make biscuits and put together other food for the
children's lunches and have them delivered to school by lunch time on
horseback.She would do her own deer,squirrel,rabbit hunting for our meat
supply.She had always hunted as a kid at home so this wasn't new to her.She
remarried [ another farmer] and had a total of seven kids.Every home she
ever moved into she had to wall paper and paint the whole inside.That was
the first thing.Then she always cut wood on her land to keep us warm.She
had us children involved in this along with the dairy farming as we grew
older.The wood she would say kept us warm in three ways,cutting it,carrying
it and sitting next to it in the stove.She never knew what it was to have
inside plumbing for years.I still can see the hand water pump over the sink
and not far from it was the old kitchen cookstove. In another corner of the
large kitchen was a sewing machine that she made most of our clothes on out
of feed bags that came in very pretty material.I was always proud to wear
my new dresses. Never once in my life did I ever hear her complain.She was
always happy and showed it.This marriage lasted ten years and her husband
[age 38] was killed in a car accident.Deputy sheriff at this time.She took
this very hard also but kept the family going like it had to be.She ran
that large dairy alone other then the help from us children again.Then she
decided to take on two more jobs.She worked as a waitress at night and in
the vineyards during the day.She never got much sleep.If any homeless child
came along she took them in.Just doubled us up in our beds.She finally had
an auction sold the cows [ about 35 ] and the farm equipment.There was only
four kids left at home at this time.She never bought herself anything that
I can ever remember but her car when she needed to update it.We later in
years had very nice xmas's with several gifts she worked so hard to get.She
was down to two of her children at home yet when she remarried again. Back
to dairy farming again.Two years later he was killed in a car accident.It
was sad that she collected so little insurance money for the loss of her
husband's deaths and the most of it went into a fund for the kids so they
could have a car when they got out of school. She said she would never
marry again and she never did.
When ever she walked into a room it would light up.Always a smile on her
face.My aunts and uncles said she was always the ball of any get together
in their younger years.
She sat in the hospital next to my sister for days watching her first grand
child die of cancer of the blood.Later in years she never left me with my
son dying with a brain tumur. She already had watched several of her
siblings lying in the hospitals dying of cancer.She tried to stay brave but
would find her crying when she thought she was alone.
When ever her children or anyone else needed her she was there and never to
complain.She stayed with her grandchildren while us mothers went in the
hospital to have another baby.We never had to leave them with an
outsider.When she finally could live on social security she still worked in
the vineyard running it for a farmer.In her spare time when she would go to
town she checked with all the neighbors on the hill that had a hard time
getting around and others that could to get their list of what they wanted
from the store or where ever.I never seen a mother like my Cady mother.She
was still deer hunting and shoveling snow in her eighties a few months
before she died.
I guess I have wrote enough but could go on and on about so many good
things she done. She still could remember her dad's horses names and loved
talking about the old cars compared to how they are today.She faithfully
visited her far away Mother and Father's graves until her death.I now
faithfully visit her grave that is always covered with several flowers and
look at the beautiful lady's picture on the headstone.I know she knows I am
there and that she hears me talk to her.I can hear her say in my head for
me to go home and not to worry about her because I have better things to
do.That was my Cady mom.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.I put together 25 Cady family
tree books for the family last year in her memory.She would have been so
proud.I think.
Shirley J Cleveland