How Do I Say Goodbye?

 Fannie Ellis Dickenson, age 96,

of the Mudfork community of North Tazewell, Va.,passed away Monday,

August 10, 2009 at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke, Va.

Born April 24, 1913 at Williamson, W.Va., she was a daughter of the

late James William Dickenson and Viola Kinzer Dickenson.

She was a member of the Mudfork Church of Christ.

She retired in 1979 from the nursing field. She began her career at the Clinch Valley Hospital, in Richlands, Va., and retired from St. Luke's Hospital , Bluefield, W. Va. She was also a
member of the United Daughter's of the Confederacy

Great-Aunt Fannie pictured here with my eldest son,

Jonathan Keith Decker

 

My first Easter with Great-Aunt Fannie!


 

 

FAIR AND TENDER LADIES!



She used to say...

"We made a lot of good memories today"

I Carry  Your Heart

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it,

(anywhere i go, you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet),

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world),

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

and here is the deepest secret,

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called

life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart )

By: e. e. cummings

Play Time In The Land Of Fannie
 

When my daughter's, Meghan and Aurora, were toddlers they loved to explore every nook and cranny of Aunt Fannie's house for all of the amazing little antique treasures she had collected over the years. Every child, that came to visit was fascinated by every thing they could see and touch (and the adults too)!! Fannie enjoyed watching them, as they played with the Raggedy Ann dolls she made by hand and the fluffy Teddy Bears that she dressed in sweaters and sporty wire rim glasses (just like Teddy Roosevelt)!

See All of the Treasures!!

 

When Jonathan was a toddler,

he loved to wear Aunt Fannie's tennis shoes!!

You could search a thousand cities,

and voyage on a thousand seas.

and never find another

as rare as she.

How can I describe her to a world
that never knew

just how special, kind, and loving,
 she was to me and to you.

 

 

Sunday Dinner With Family and Friends





"Making Apple Butter"

                                                     

Fannie loved to garden!

She canned all of the fresh vegetables that were in full abundance and made preserves from the tart fruit that her trees would bare each year!  She especially enjoyed having everyone over to a home cooked meal,country style and fresh out of the garden!  A delicious dessert always followed her meals. Maybe a rhubarb pie or a blackberry cobbler! We even cranked our own homemade ice cream while we were waiting on the meal to be served. Everyone got a turn!

No meal was complete unless it was eaten off of her finest china!











"Little sisters"
Fannie pictured here with
my Grandmother Margaret .




Their kind and loving Mother,
Viola Kinzer Dickenson.

The words that come so easily

now fail to portray'
A woman with so great a heart and soul

that she freely gave each day,

a small bit of it away,

until there was no more.

Now just a thin whisper

of her name remains...

Dearest Aunt Fannie,
 how we loved you so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great-Aunt Fannie proudly
pictured here with her brother,
Samuel Dickenson,
 in his World War II Uniform
 

My Grandparents

Powell and Margaret Sluss
 

Once there was a time so far away,

where there dwelt,

gentlewomen and gentlemen.

Bound by the Southern Traditions
 of honor, quiet dignity, and truth.

A generation that would fade as quickly
 as the last note of the sweetest song.

Hope is the thing...

 

Hope is the thing with feathers,

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words.

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson

Miss Fannie Ellis Dickenson

"Our Southern Belle"

With all of my love...

GOODBYE.

None of the Vintage Art Work would have been possible
without the hard work and generosity of Maritha,
 the copyright owner of Victorian-Vignettes.
Thank you very much!