11.07.09
Time to Forgive
[caption id=”attachment_76″ align=”aligncenter” width=”214″ caption=”John, Mollie, and Edward Jordan”]
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It is time to forgive. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. The person I have to forgive has been dead for many years. Her name was Gertrude Ramsey Randolph. She was my great-grandmother’s sister. The family called her Gertie for short. She and my great-grandmother, Mollie Ramsey Jordan, looked nothing alike, were six years apart, and grew up in different states.
But there were similarities. They both majored in music in college; both liked the finer things in life, and they both married accomplished men. My great-grandmother’s husband, John Henry Jordan, became the first black doctor in Coweta County, Georgia (http://bit.ly/N7JRO). Aunt Gertie’s husband, Joseph Randolph, became the first black president of Claflin College in South Carolina. Although all things appeared equal, they really weren’t. While my great-grandparents had two children (only one of whom, my grandfather, Edward, survived infancy), Aunt Gertie and her husband had none. I believe this is one of the factors that led to Aunt Gertie’s jealousy of my great-grandmother.
My great-grandmother died young. She was in her 40’s, but my grandfather was still alive when three years later, Mollie and Gertie’s father died. Throughout the lengthy obituary, which I am positive Aunt Gertie wrote, with all of its accolades and commendations for my great-great-grandfather, Dr. Edward Ramsey, one glaring thing was left out in the list of relatives who survived him: my grandfather’s name. My grandfather was Ramsey’s only grandchild. It could not have been an accident.
Until recently, when I thought of Aunt Gertie, anger would rise up in me like an overwhelming flood. Now, however, I feel differently. I think I feel sorry for her that she never really valued the gift of having a sister or being blessed with a nephew to dote upon. Today, I am no longer consumed by anger. My bitter tears are gone. Without harboring any more animosity or resentment, I can honestly say: Aunt Gertie, I forgive you.
