IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK - Blog #13
I’ve been fortunate to have had family here long after Charles and Sylvia died. Jennie lived her entire life here. Tinnie, after she was widowed, returned to join her sister Jennie and spent her last years here. Charley (Charles J.D.) was always around having built his home across from me. His two children, Chod (Charles William) and Julia were back and forth between their home and here. Their children, Charles’ and Sylvia’s great grandchildren, would visit the aunties (Tinnie and Jennie), stay here during summer vacations, and celebrate holidays here. In fact, six generations of Koesters have lived here or visited here. The family has always been around.
I found several photos of the Koester family get-togethers. In the top photo from 1950, Charley’s (Charles J.D.) and Hyacinth’s children, Charles W. (Chod) and Julia, spouses Sarah and Richard, and children pose before departing after a weekend visit. They are gathered beside Charley’s house; you can see my summer kitchen in the background. During many of their visits, the children would stay with the aunties, Tinnie and Jennie, and me.
In the bottom left photo, Charley’s and Hyacinth’s son-in-law, Richard King, was home on leave from the Navy in 1943. Tinnie, Jennie, Richard’s wife Julia, Charley and Hyacinth gathered in my front yard for the photo. Julia and Richard’s two-year-old daughter Jane wanted to move on. Julia was Charles’ and Sylvia’s granddaughter and Charley’s and Hyacinth’s daughter. During the war, Julia and her children lived across the courtyard with her parents in their house while her husband Richard was serving in the Navy. They spent a lot of time with me, too.
In the bottom right photo from 1947, Hyacinth and siblings Jennie, Charley, and Tinnie enjoy a picnic with young Richard and Jane, Charley’s and Hyacinth’s grandchildren and Julia’s children. They are seated at a table that is by my back door and across the courtyard from Charley’s and Hyacinth’s house.
I remember the visits in later years when there were more great grandchildren, and they were older. In the late afternoon in anticipation of dinner, they would check with their aunties, Tinnie and Jennie, and their grandparents to see what was planned for dinner before deciding in which house to eat dinner.
