Longevity
Last week I shared photos of my great-grandfather Thomas Edwards. He died in a mining accident when he was 42. His wife, however, lived much longer. I met her once when I was only 3 or 4 years old. I have no memory of this, but my parents have photos from the family reunion that prove it. My great-grandmother Flora Sophia Maggie Hasemeyer lived to be 102.
She was born in 1889 in Colorado. Her parents were both German immigrants who ended up in Colorado, got married and stayed there. She married Thomas Edwards when she was 20 years old. They made their first home in the Gunnison area of Colorado. By 1920 they had moved to Carbon County Utah, where Thomas was a coal miner. When my grandfather was only 9 his dad, Thomas was killed in a mining accident. This left Flora alone with 4 children. A few years later her oldest daughter died, so she took in 3 grandchildren to raise as well.
Eventually she remarried. In 1943 she married William Monte Pilling, a divorcee with 5 children of his own. Sadly he passed away only 3 years later. Again Flora was a widow.
She stayed in Carbon County for the rest of her life, which lasted until 1991. She wasn't the only long lived in her family, she had a brother who lived to 93 and a sister to 91. I don't know the secret to her long life, but it seems at least a little of it was inherited.
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| Flora as a teenager |
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| Hasemeyer Family - Elmer, Mabel, Clyde, Flora (back row); Magda and Dietrich |
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| Edwards Family - Thomas, Elizabeth, Edward, Flora, Helen |
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| Flora and Monte Pilling |
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| Flora and her family in Utah |
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| Flora at home |
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