"AND THE ROCKETS' RED GLARE..." FRANCIS SCOTT KEY AND HIS POEM

On this day (Sep 13) 1814, a lawyer named Francis Scott Key wrote a poem entitled ‘In Defense of Fort McHenry’. During the War of 1812, one of Key’s friends had been taken prisoner by the British and was being held aboard a ship in Maryland. Key traveled to Baltimore, located the ship and began negotiations for the release of Dr. William Beanes. While on board, the British began an attack by sea of Fort McHenry, and refused to allow Key or Beanes to leave. As a result, Key had to witness Fort McHenry being bombarded repeatedy from a British ship approximately 8 miles away.

All day and all night, the assault continued until, unable to destroy the fort, the British finally gave up. Greatly moved by the sight of a lone American flag still flying above the battered fort at daybreak, Key immortalized his feelings of pride and love for his country in a poem. The poem was published in newspapers and became enormously popular with the public. Later, the words were set to music composer John Stafford Smith’s song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”. Soon, the public began referring to the stirring, patriotic song as “The Star Spangled Banner”.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson announced it should be played at all official events. THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER was officially pronounced by Congress to be the national anthem for the United States on 03 March 1931, 116 years after it was first written.

Today, the original flag during the battle at Fort McHenry in 1814 can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

REMEMBERING 9-11

Remembering 9-11-01 and the senseless tragedy of those who were lost; the promise of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and what we all lose when good, innocent people are taken too soon. For their families and friends, and for all the unborn descendants who might have been, may God bless the memories of those fallen and give strength and comfort to us all. ~ Ashley Kath-Bilsky

If Tomorrow Never Comes

If I knew it would be the last time
that I’d see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I’d hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute or two
to stop and say “I love you,”
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
well I’m sure you’ll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there’s always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything right.

There will always be another day
to say our “I love you’s,”
And certainly there’s another chance
to say our “Anything I can do’s?”

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I’d like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget,

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you’re waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll surely regret the day,

That you didn’t take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you’ll always hold them dear,

Take time to say “I’m sorry,” “please forgive me,”
“thank you” or “it’s okay”.
And if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll have no regrets about today.

~ Unknown

"THE GRAVEYARD QUILT"

There are many ways to pass family history down from generation to generation. For some, it is the old Family Bible. For others, it could be an oral history from a grandmother to her grandchild, or boxes of mementos and old photographs tucked away in an attic. Well, I just read a fascinating article in my monthly DAR magazine about “The Graveyard Quilt”. No, this isn’t a festive Halloween quilt to bring out each October. In 1836, a woman named Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell began stitching a quilt in memory of her two-year old son, John, who had just died. In 1843, she added another son who had died at the age of 19. What’s so unusual about her quilt is that it features a graveyard in the center; on the top is where the graveyard is located in Monroe County, Ohio. At first, the macabre, almost Tim Burton look to it, made me sad. I had never seen such a depressing looking quilt. I wanted to learn why this woman chose such a depressing way to remember her family.

Apparently, when the family moved to Ohio, she wanted to make sure that no one forgot where these boys were buried. So, from a mourning perspective, Elizabeth used a talent she possessed to not only remember her deceased children but document family history for future descendants. It became more than just a quilt, but a genealogical and historical artifact.

As the family grew, Elizabeth felt the quilt had ‘design flaws’. She started another quilt, using the original quilt top as a practice piece. This practice quilt top now resides in the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland, Kentucky. The second, finished quilt (pictured below) is part of the Kentucky Historical Society’s Thomas D. Clark History Center in Frankfort, Kentucky. To quote the article, “Together they are nationally known to be the only existing graveyard quilt top and quilt.”

I appreciate the love and sentimentality Elizabeth crafted into her quilt, although I must amit the method of keeping up the quilt bothers me. You see, when a child was born into the family (a joyous occasion usually filled with happiness and hope for their future), a black, eight-sided coffin was immediately added to this quilt around the outer edge. When death occurred, these coffins would be removed from that edge and reapplied into the graveyard area, located in the center. The death date would also be embroidered. I can see the practicality in having a set procedure for the family quit, but it is rather gruesome…at least to me.

On the subject of quilts, I LOVE quilts, and even took a quilting class years ago. I love the design, various materials and colors incorporated, as well as the definite talent and patience quilters have. Unfortunately, I lack patience. When I start something, I want to zip through it or I get bored. So, not a quilter do I make! However, my grandmother and great-grandmother made quilts all the time. I recently found a letter from my great-grandmother to my grandmother written in pencil during the Great Depression where she mentioned how hard it was to come by cotton and material for her quilting projects. So, she was going to make a wool quilt for one of her sons. I also have some quilt tops that were projects my grandmother worked on with her mother and her sisters. I remember my mother pointing out to me material that had once been used in childhood outfits of hers or how ‘that fabric came from the kitchen window curtains”. She could even identify what stitching belonged to her grandmother, her mother and each aunt. Like the brush stroke of a great artist, she knew each person’s style. The thing is, I knew by the way my mom talked about these quilts that this was more than a blanket, or bits of old fabric fashioned into a design. A family activity between a mother and her grown daughters had become part of that family’s history…and the beginning of my interest in preserving family history.

For over twenty years now, I have been researching family history, thrilled when I come upon an old photo, a piece of documentation about an ancestor, or a hand-written letter from my great-grandmother that gives so much insight into ‘who’ she was as a person. For anyone doing genealogical research, you run into so many road blocks that it can be discouraging. It saddens me to think of the artifacts and records destroyed over time, sometimes deliberately. Let’s just say, don’t bring up the name General Sherman in my presence!

So, searching for any article of family history becomes a personal quest. Finding what I like to call a “puzzle piece” is more than just a reward for the hard work that often took years to find. That piece becomes almost sacred because it helps to complete the family picture, and even moreso when it is something that was held or crafted by an ancestor.

Apart from the artwork and design of quilts, there is often a family legacy in the finished project. For me, it is the visual I still get of my grandmother, her sisters, and my great-grandmother all sitting around together and sewing a quilt while their children play outdoors. I picture them laughing and talking about life and their families. It is MY connection to that moment in time and I feel even more a part of them. So, when I read about The Graveyard Quilt, although my initial reaction was the sadness involved by picturing this woman sitting down and adding cloth coffins, I also admire her passion to preserve the history of her family. Granted, the procedure she followed would have been too emotional and fatalistic for me. There is no way that when a child was born in my family, I would have felt right about making a cloth coffin for them to put on the family quilt. BUT, for Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell, her initial process of mourning became a passionate desire to maintain family history and remembrance of all who passed on in her family…and it was done perhaps the only way she knew how — through quilting. The end result, family history was preserved.

After 174 years, though quilters today may be impressed by Elizabeth’s ”traditional layout of a center medallion surrounded by blocks of alternating 8-pointed stars and black printed fabric”, for anyone who has spent hours and years searching for one clue about their ancestors, “The Graveyard Quilt” (macabre as it may seem) is a tangible artifact and sacred history for any descendants of Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell — as well as an example of an unusual and innovative way to document a family tree.



NOTE: The above represents personal opinions of Ashley Kath-Bilsky based on an article entitled, “The Graveyard Quilt” by Gaylord Cooper, featured in American Spirit Magazine, Daughters of the American Revolution, September/October 2010