Visiting My Ancestry - The Story of Tom and Buena Davis - Part 2

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As a child, I never stopped to wonder about what my grandparent’s lives were like before I came into the world. A kid’s perspective is shortsighted and naturally selfish; the walls of my perception hadn’t expanded beyond the boundaries of my wishes. In my eyes, my grandparents were suspended in time. They had always been and would always be exactly as they were, even as my brother and I celebrated birthdays and the pencil markings on the door frame testified to our growth. 

As an adult, long after they had both passed from this world, I stumbled upon a door to the past in the form of a bundle of letters, tied with a faded pink ribbon and buried in the bottom of Mama Davis’s cedar chest. The story of how the chest came to me is for another time, but it was the catalyst for the stories I’m sharing now. This dusty chest had quietly stood sentinel over a collection of memories and family records that bore tribute to the resilience and faith of the family I am descended from. Scrapbooks and photo albums, trinkets and journals gave up information long forgotten.  The particulars blended to form a documentary of their lives in my heart and soul. 

Walter Lee (Tom) Davis began courting Buena Vista Irene Hogget in early 1919. At this time, she was in Arizona, although she lived in Junction, which lies about 58 east of Sonora. I do not know the story of how they met; the scene opens for me with the first preserved love letter from Tom to Buena.

Mama and Papa Davis began their life together in one of the most tumultuous years in our nation’s history. I believe they learned early on that life is to cherished and appreciated and that good times and terrible times come to us all,  forming us, as we allow them to, into good or terrible people, depending on Who and what we lean on in those times.

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