Nephew Jason Takes Us Back A Couple Centuries To His Great Great Grandparental Units Whatcom Abode

Nephew Jason told me he'd try and email me a couple more photos, last night, if he could muster the energy.

Apparently, energy mustering happened, because a couple photos arrived, which I've no recollection of previously seeing, but which prompted me to find related relative photos that I did know I had, located somewhere on this computer.

In the above photo, from Jason, we are looking at the homestead of my Great Grandparental Units, A.E. Sundean and wife, Hattie. Born 11/20/1876 and 8/19/1881, respectively. This homestead eventually grew into being a big farm, in Whatcom County, Washington, which still exists in 2025.

Great Grandma Hattie, I do not remember. Hattie may have died before I was born, or shortly thereafter. I do remember Great Grandpa A.E. Sundean, my Grandma Vera's dad, which made him my mom's Grandpa. I do not remember, or maybe never did, what the A.E. initials represent, name-wise.

(This morning, I learned, from Jason, that the A.E. initials, name-wise, are Andrew Edward, and that Great-Grandma Hattie died in 1954)

Jason's explanatory text regarding the above photo...

Here we must have the Sundean family prior to the arrival of the colorful Grandma Vera. The writing on the back of the picture indicates that the youngsters in the picture must be Vera's older brothers, Walter, Fred and Harold. Two of which you could possibly remember.  Harold apparently checked out months after your arrival.

The below photo of the "colorful" Grandma Vera was the second photo in Jason's last night email.

This young look at Grandma Vera looks a lot like my mom, as in the version of my mom from my early years. 

Like Jason indicated, Grandma Vera was colorful. And memorable. And fun. I have a lot of Grandma Vera items here in my Texas abode. Multiple Afghans crocheted by Grandma Vera. A pottery camel made and autographed by Grandma Vera.

Grandma Vera would give me something she'd made and remark something like she wanted me to have something to remember her by. 

It would greatly please Grandma Vera to know that, all these years later, in 2025, Grandma Vera is being made mention of, in multiple venues, such as on this newfangled dot.com thing she found so vexing when it arrived on the planet, in the previous century.

And that her eldest Great Grandchild, Jason, is remembering her fondly, via something called email, sending photos all the way from Washington to Texas.

And now, a couple related relative photos I found on my computer after getting Jason's email, last night.

That would be my aforementioned pretty mom, holding Jason's dad, my little brother Jake, with Grandma Vera holding me, next to Great Grandpa, A.E. Sundean.

And here we have another photo with Great Grandpa, A.E. Sundean, this time on the left, with mom still holding brother Jake, whilst I sit on dad's lap.

My mom and dad look so young. So do I and my little brother. 

Because we all were. Young....

Brother Jake Reminds Us To Remember Grandma Vera's Birthday

What you see here is the horizontal device in my bedroom, upon which I usually sleep. Why are you seeing my sleeping device at this point in time, you may be wondering?

Well.

Last night, the evening of December 26, the day after Christmas, a few minutes before I was scheduled to watch Amazon Prime broadcast the Seattle Seahawks trying to win their final game of the season, I got a text message on my phone, from my little brother Jake, he being Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa, and my nephew's, Jason and Joey's, dad.

The text message said...

"124 years young today..."

The text message included the photo below.

It took me a second or two to realize what the text message meant and how it related to the photo.

Grandma Vera, was my mom's mom. Grandma Vea's birthday was December 26. Apparently, according to my brother's calculations, Grandma Vera would have turned 124 years old yesterday.

Grandma Vera endured dealing with serious arthritis which left her fingers sort of gnarled, and which resulted in constant pain.

To alleviate the pain, somewhat, and to keep her fingers able to function, Grandma Vera was a crocheting and knitting machine, churning out dozens of Afghans, knitted caps, mittens and other things made with yarn and needles.

When we were pre-teenagers, Grandma Vera taught me and my brother how to knit. My brother became quite adept at knitting, able to make mittens using multiple needles, and knitted caps. I was not so talented, only able to make simple things, like a scarf.

When I got my brother's text message about Grandma Vera I replied and said I have some Grandma Vera Afghans stored in my abode. I then went looking for them, finding two and a crocheted pillow in my closet.

I took a phone photo of what I found and sent it to my brother.

Then I took one of the Afghans and installed it in bedspread mode on my bed, which is what you see photo documented at the top.

Til I put the Afghan on my bed I did not realize it was so big.

I do not know how many Afghans Grandma Vera made over the years. I know the total number is somewhere in the multiple dozens. All the relatives have at least one Grandma Vera Afghan, as far as I know.

I remember one time when Grandma Vera was giving me an Afghan she remarked that she hoped these things she made helped us remember her. I recollect telling Grandma Vera I'd always remember her for much more than the nice things she made.

Grandma Vera was my free-spirited relative. It was from Grandma Vera I think I got any free-spiritedness that I may possess. 

It is not only relatives who now have Grandma Vera Afghans. Back in October of 2018, when Linda Lou was visiting my mom, in her abode in Sun Lakes, Arizona, Linda Lou verbalized admiration for a white Afghan Linda Lou saw folded on mom's bed.

Mom then gave that Afghan to Linda Lou.

Linda Lou was flying from Arizona to Palm Springs, and had no room for the Afghan, so I drove it back to Texas and then mailed it to Washington.

Methinks it would greatly please Grandma Vera to know her Afghans are very much in play in 2024, and being talked about via newfangled devices that did not exist in Grandma Vera's time.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Grandma Vera, a day late!

Spencer Jack Visits His Greatest Family Member For The First Time

Yester evening I got a few incoming emails from Spencer Jack's dad, FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason).

One of the emails had a picture of Spencer Jack at Birch Bay. I blogged about that and Birch Bay on one of my other blogs in a blogging titled Spencer Jack Takes Me Back To Washington To Birch Bay.

There is nothing in Texas remotely like Washington's Birch Bay. How can I say that? Well, from Birch Bay you can clearly see a volcano. And mountains in Canada.

The first email of yester evening, prior to the two with pictures said, in part....

FUD--

Spencer and I are currently en route to visit his greatest family member.

We will send you photo documentation upon arrival this late afternoon.

FNJ

Greatest family member? I had no idea what that meant. Were Spencer and Jason arriving in D/FW in the late afternoon? Well, it was already well past late afternoon at my location, so I figured we were talking about a late Washington afternoon.

About three hours after the email about visiting Spencer's greatest family member I got an email with the picture you see above, with the subject line of the email saying "Spencer Jack meets his great great grandmother."

I had not seen this before. The gravestone for my Grandma Vera. Grandma Vera is my mom's mom.

Vera Sundean Porter 

December 26, 1910 - September 23, 2003

To be totally accurate the gravestone should say Vera Sundean Wilder Porter Huntley.

LaVerne Wilder was Grandma's first husband, and the father of my mother Shirley. Yes, that's right, LaVerne and Shirley. Grandma's second husband, Dr. Jim Porter, is who I always thought of as my Grandpa. It was at Grandma and Grandpa's 25th wedding anniversary party, attended by my actual Grandpa, that led me to learn I had another Grandpa.

That night I asked my brother how can mom be 31 when Grandma and Grandpa have only been married 25 years. Young and naive little boys were we. My brother and I decided the next morning I would ask at breakfast. It was then we learned about our other Grandpa, who we never actually knew.

It's a complicated story.

This was the morning we learned why mom's maiden name was Wilder, not Porter. And that Aunt Mike and Uncle Jim were mom's half-sister and half-brother. And that Uncle Willard was mom's full brother, or whatever one calls a sibling ones shares a mom and dad with.

When I saw Grandma Vera's gravestone I thought how can it be that long ago that Grandma died? 2003? I remember like it was yesterday, I was walking with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts, talking to my Arizona sister. We knew Grandma was not doing well. I asked my sister if she would be flying north for the funeral when that eventuality came to pass. As we had this conversation we did not know that Grandma had died that morning.

There was no funeral. Grandma Vera did not like them and did not want one.

It would please Grandma Vera immensely to know her Great Great Grandson, Spencer Jack had come to visit her. It would also please Grandma Vera to know how much we still all think of her. Looking around the room I am in right now I can see several things that remind me of Grandma Vera. Including two afghans, a knit cap and a pillow case.

It would not please Grandma Vera to know that only a few short years after her passing Uncle Jim, Aunt Mike and Uncle Willard would be joining her in the Great Beyond. Grandma Vera would have been most shocked at the passing of Aunt Mike. We all were. Alzheimer's.

It has been years since I've been to the Custer Cemetery where so many of my relatives now live. I don't remember how to get there. Let alone find gravesites once I am there. My last time being there was for the burial of Grandma Vera's little brother, Uncle Pete. The first time was for the burial of Grandpa Porter. That was one big funeral. I remember an overflowing church, somewhere in the Custer zone.

I wish we'd thought to take video of Grandma Vera. But she likely would have objected. Grandma Vera was a character. Funny. What little personality I have likely came in large part from Grandma Vera....

Spencer Jack Has The Flu Which Has Me Thinking About Spencer's Great Great Grandma Vera

Bad news from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my Favorite Nephew Jason, telling me that Spencer has come down with a bad bout of the flu. The flu is hardest on little kids and elderly people, such as myself.

This is what FN Jason had to say....

Your favorite Great Nephew Spencer Jack has fallen victim to this year's flu bug. The little guy was quite cold, despite sporting a high fever all night. I had to dig out one of Grandma Vera's hand made blankets. I kept two of these one of a kind knittings. I believe FN Joe still has some of her stocking caps that he uses for wintertime fishing.  

Grandma Vera was my mom's mom.

Grandma had really bad arthritis as long as I can remember, resulting in gnarled hands that were very painful. Keeping busy with her hands kept the arthritis partially at bay. So, Grandma Vera was a crocheting machine, churning out big afghans and knitted caps, among other things.

Grandma would see a hatless kid walking by on a snowy, cold Lynden, Washington winter day and go give the kid one of her knitted caps. This eventually had Grandma's signature knitted caps on a lot of Lynden kid's heads.

A couple weeks ago, during our first Texas cold snap of the year, I went exploring in my walk-in closet to find my stash of Grandma Vera knitted caps. I found 4 of them.

I did not have to go hunting to find my Grandma Vera afghans. I have 4 of them, stored in another closet, until I need one, like the one you see via the picture, currently on the bed in my slumber chamber.

Grandma Vera would be so pleased to know her legacy of yarn products lives on, covering Spencer Jack, born 4 or 5 years after his Great Great Grandma Vera died at age, if I remember right, 94.

I last saw Grandma Vera in 2002, if I remember right. I don't remember why the aforementioned FN Joey and I were up in Bellingham, but we were, so we stopped in for a visit with Grandma Vera in her 3rd floor apartment in her assisted living place.

When we left, on the way back to the parking lot, Joey told me Grandma would be at her window waving at us. And so she was. This was the last time I ever saw my Grandma Vera.

I just got hit with a very rare wave of feeling very sad.