Dean-Hey Heritage

My grandmother, Ruth Hey, an accomplished pianist, took a writing class late in life. The following essay survives. The entire essay is presented, paragraph by paragraph, in the following 8 pages, complete with pictures of the events or places or people to which she alludes. Read the pages in order. Enjoy.

Grandma's essay reminds me of a book I enjoyed years ago. The book, Out of Africa, was made into an Oscar winning motion picture by the same title. See if Gram's essay reminds you of the following excerpt by Isak Dinesen, as the author, back in Copenhagen after 13 years in Africa, pondered if Africa would remember her.

"If I know a song of Africa, I thought, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the field, and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers-- does Africa know a song of me? Would the air over the plain quiver with a color that I had had on? Or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me? Or would the eagles of Ngong look out for me?" (Out of Africa, pg.83)

Ruth Hey, seated at her grand piano, with husband Abram

Grandma's writing, introduction
Henry Johnson
Great Grandmother's memory box
Great, great, great grandmother's German home
Cooper Shop
Stone School
Abram Hey Home
Family Dairy
Hey farm

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