A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

Sit back and relax while I tell you a story about two people named Wesley Hardin and Blanche Hardin, truly a match made in heaven.

It was the 1930's Blanche lived in a place on the second floor and her friend lived below. Blanche and her mother needed coal but had no money until the upcoming Saturday. Blanche's friend told the coal man that her friend needed some coal and she didn't have any money. The coal man agreed to give Blanche and her mother the coal and come back for the money on Saturday.

This was the beginning of what would be 70 years of marriage for Blanche and Wesley Hardin. Blanche and Wesley Hardin are my great-grandparents and they were married in 1931. They had nine children, 2 boys and 7 girls.

Wesley Hardin comes from a family of 18 children. His mother died when he was a very young age. She bore 5 children. Wesley was the oldest. His father remarried and his second wife bore 13 children.
My great-grandfather was what people called a Jack of All Trades, which means he had many jobs. He was a coal man, he would sell coal from his truck to people so they could keep warm. He was an iceman during the summer. Sometimes he sold vegetables and he was also a mover. He would move things when people asked. In 1943, he worked for a company called Flavor Services where he packed food for the soldiers during WWII. This company was located near 54th and LaSalle in Chicago. My great-grandfather like working by himself most of the time.

Blanche Hardin grew up mostly as an only child. Her mother bore other children but they died at a very early age of childhood diseases and Blanche did not come to know to them. Blanche almost died at a young age too. She had the whooping cough and pneumonia. Fortunately, she survived and helped take care of her mother until she died. Her mother died at the age of 67.

Blanche had several types of jobs. She worked for a company near 63rd and Green making lamp shades. Once, she had a job doing laundry, she said that was the worst job she ever had. Then she became a homemaker and she made lamp shades at home for a store called L. Fish.

My great-grandparents didn't have lots of money, but they made the best of what they had.
Today, we have an ironing board, they had smoothing irons.
Today, we have refrigerators, they had iceboxes.
Today we have washing machines, my grandparents had a washing board.
We have electricity today, but they had lamp lights.
My grandparents didn't have what we know as a bathroom, they had a toilet.
When they wanted to take a bath, they took it in a tin tub maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
They didn't have television until 1947. Before that, they listened to the radio.

I asked my grandmother how she raised so many children and they all turned out good. She said with the help of the good Lord.

She kept a clean house because she gave all her children chores. They couldn't just come in the house, drop, their book bags and go outside to play. The boys had to empty the coal ashes and the girls had to wash out their socks and things on the washboard. They also had to clean up on Saturdays. If they did, she would allow them to go to different places like over to a friend's house or they could have company at their house.

She taught them manners. They had to say "yes mam", and "yes sir", to every adult. If another adult saw her children doing something, they knew they had permission to punish them and if need be she would punish them when they got home as well.

My grandmother, Shirley Ingrim, still says "yes mam" and "yes sir" to her parents and any other older adults.

My grandmother attended St. Mary A.M. E. Church on 52nd and Dearborn in Chicago when she was a little girl. Her children attended the church and many of them, and their children, have been married at this same church and they still attend. St. Mary A.M. E. Church is 100 years old today.

Both, my great-grandmother and great- grandfather have been featured in the Jet magazine because they have been married for so long. The most amazing thing is that, I bet you thought I was telling you about some people who once lived. But my great-grandparents are still living today.
My great-grandmother is 94 years old and my great-grandfather is 95 years old. My great-grandmother was born September 11, 1907 and my great-grandfather was born June 11, 1906.

I asked my great-grandmother what was the key to living a long life and she said,"trusting in the Lord and obeying your parents."

"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

TATIANNA GENEVA INGRIM, 3rd Grade