Mon arrière-grand-père, « ce héros au sourire si doux » *
“Grandpa Schultz” (my maternal great-grandfather) lived to be 94, and was legendary for his loving disposition and his crystal clear blue eyes. He sang with a sweet tenor voice, and his daughter, my grandmother – who loved music so much and shared it with us all – was brought up in that wonderful farmhouse built on a graceful slope, surrounded by prosperous orchards and farmland in Western New York. They had a piano at the foot of the staircase, there was a sewing room off on the side, and the house seemed to me surrounded by miles of porch where you could sit in the shade and just rock. That’s mostly what Great-Grandpa did in his last years when his eyesight was gone, simply waiting, calmly rocking in the still breeze.
By the porch, just outside the kitchen door there was an old hand-pump providing the freshest and purest well water you can imagine. My mother was born upstairs in that house 100 years ago, in a front bedroom. She loved her grandfather endlessly, and still remembers winter sleigh rides with her Grandpa with two horses and sleigh-bells, and he sang to her, while nestled together under the warm wool blankets. He never said a harsh word. I was only three when he died, but do recall Christmases “out on the farm,” surrounded with love.
Charles Henry Schultz was born in the US in 1859, just before the Civil War. His parents immigrated from Mecklenburg, and taught him from the Bible and about the life and works of the great Lincoln, lessons which he shared with his family. Grandpa Schultz is represented in this amateur painting by my dear Aunt Alice (now 94) in a style that reflects another time, and because I like it so much I had it framed years ago. The picture came back with me last week across the sea to find a new home, bringing with it a feeling of peace and simplicity.
« Donne-lui tout de même à boire », Grandpa might have said to you, back on the farm, offering you a cup of cool, refreshing water to drink from his well.
*Victor Hugo, ‘Après la bataille’ (in the collection ‘la Légende des siècles’)