102 Years Ago

Stuart Maupin Weedon was born to Chancellor Barbour Weedon and Bessie James Maupin. They had married relatively late in life, and Stuart was their first child, to be followed four years later by Edgar Jackson Weedon. His father was 41 years old when he came along (as he was nearly 40 when I came along); his mother was 34. He was born in Fredericksburg, but raised in Richardsville, Virginia, where they both grew up. The house he was raised in (what’s left of it!) stands still on land my sister owns. This picture of him was taken upon his last birthday. He died some 16 days later. It was a rule in our house that the tree did not go up until on or after daddy’s birthday. I see the tree up here and I honestly don’t remember when we even got it that year. Everything was a blur. He was fading fast. So his earthly pilgrimage was 59 years and 16 days. The older I’ve grown, the more I resemble my dad. It’s odd passing a mirror and out of the corner of the eye catching a glimpse of my father walking past!