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Note: ing house. Her father died when she was 22 years old. She worked as a housekeeper for a Doctor prior to marrying my grandfather Arthur Knights. Information on their courtship is under the notes for Arthur Knights. Nana only went to school for four years but was a very bright literate woman. She was self-educated. My own love of reading was nurtured by the stories she would read me out of the "Book of Knowledge" encyclopedias, at bedtime. I remember being unable to sleep many nights staying at their house. They lived two doors down from the cemetery, which contributed to my already overactive imagination. At those times Nana would come to check on me, and if I was still awake she would crawl into bed with me and I would fall asleep safe in her arms. She would always let us help her bake cookies, and let us eat as much dough as we wanted. I also remember one sinful delight we partook of - eating brown sugar on bread! Something unheard of at home (probably a good thing to considering how many cavities I used to get). She and her sister Euena would often pack us up as children and take us to Golden Lake for picnics. Nana and Papa also loved to take us picking blueberries and chokecherries. We picked chokecherries at the Micksburg cemetery. Papa said the dead people made good fertilizer. I was a little reluctant to eat the chokecherry jam afterwards. Nana had a big heart and did a great deal of charity and volunteer work for the church and community. She was a member of the Victorian Order of Nurses. She always had friends visiting and would take us to visit my great grandmother at Bonnechere Manor while she lived there. We would take gumdrops to feed the old people. My sister Sandra didn't like the "sloppy kisses" the older people with no teeth would give her. Nana was easy to talk to and never judgmental, with me anyway. I always thought of her as a friend I could phone or write to when I was feeling lonely or troubled. It really broke her heart when Papa died. I remember one night after he had been taken to the hospital. I was upstairs and Nana was changing the sheets on their bed. She said it was the first time since they'd been married that they hadn't slept together. She missed Papa very much after he died and said she felt he was waiting for her on a beautiful garden path. After Nana died I've always pictured them both walking along that path. Barb Taylor, December 25, 1999
Note: Nana was born on October 11th, 1905 to Isaac and Mary Smith. She grew up in a strict but lov
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