Grandma Peggy, my father's mother, use to visit him on an annual basis after slavery ended. She and her husband owned a lot of land on which they tilled cotton and corn. Every fall they would bring it to the market in town. They also brought us many souvenirs from hog-killing time.

On one such visit she told my father that Miss Polly, her former mistress and wife of his father, wanted him to visit her. "I never want to see that old woman as long as I live." He said. "I'll never forger how she had you stripped and whipped the day the old man died."

He added that, "I guess it is all right for you to take care of her and forgive her for what she did to you, but she could have starved to death if I'd had my say-so. She surely would have, if it hadn't been for you."