My Sojourner and Me: A Memoir

By Jean Ardyce Kelton

My Sojourner and Me is the remarkable story of the ghost of the family who occasionally has helped the Author during her lifetime, but also has caused much controversy among family members who thought they could get rich by writing a story about Mary, my Sojourner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493144112

Book preview

Chapter One

Jean is two years old in 1929

She woke to a dark room, and sensed a presence there as she had some other nights.

Jean pulled herself up by the bars on the side of her crib, and shakely made her way on her little toddler’s legs to the bottom end of her bed.

She couldn’t see very well in the darkness, but it seemed there was a person there. Jean thought it must be a mother who had come to see if she was alright.

Jean talked to her in her baby prattle, and the presence gave her a feeling of companionship and security, although she would not have been able to explain that to anyone.

She thought she must have two mamas, one in the daytime and one at night. In order to tell the difference between them, she had them color-coded in her mind. The daytime mama was white mama and the night-time one was blue mama.

Many times she had talked about them as best she could to any adult who was present, but they never seemed to understand what she was trying to tell them.

She basked in the pleasant aura of Blue Mama for awhile, and then feeling sleepy again, she lay back down in her crib~

Everything seemed to be nice to her way of thinking, and soon she nodded off and fell asleep.

Chapter Two

Jean was four years old

As Jean opened her eyes, she could see bright sunlight pouring into the bedroom window. She snuggled down in her bed not yet ready to get up, remembering that she was at her grandparents’ farm for the summer. Four years old and going on five now, she thought it was a wonderful time to spend on the farm.

There were domestic animals to see and play with. She had been given a big white rabbit at Easter time, and he was in a pen out in the back yard. She knew that great-grandfather pulled carrots out of the garden to feed the rabbit, much to the chagrin of Grandma Jenny.

Then there were visiting cousins who would come along from time to time. Together they played games or went swimming in the creek in the back pasture. Sometimes they gathered butternuts from under the trees, and stored them in the granary. On rainy days, they would crack butternuts and bring them to grandma to make her delicious cookies.

Jean’s little stomach began to rumble, reminding her it was time for breakfast. She got up, put on the blue dress that had been laid out for her the night before, and slipped into her brown summer sandals.

She combed her hair, cut short for the summer, that was becoming to gradually turn brown. What had begun as pale gold was now beginning to match her dark brown eyes. She had a tan, and Gramma said she got brown ever summer like her Daddy She hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen. There she saw Gramma Jenny standing by the kitchen stove cooking oatmeal.

Jean announced, Gramma, I’m here.

Jenny smiled at her and said, So you are Child. I’m proud my big girl can get up and get dressed all by herself now. Come here and have your breakfast.

She set a white china bowl of oatmeal, and a glass of orange juice before Jean and watched her dive in. While Jean ate, Jenny sat at the kitchen table observing her. This is a lovely child, she thought, agreeable and friendly. So thoughtful of others. Really engaging.

She would be the fifth generation of family owning the farm. The land had been purchased by Jean’s great-great-grand parents, Arden and Mary who had come to Wisconsin from Massachusetts by way of Northern New York state in the 1850’s, just when Wisconsin was becoming a state. They were pioneers, and had developed a nice farm on the edge of a village called Arkansas. There was a comfortable Victorian style house, a barn and other outbuildings all fitted out as a prosperous farmer would have.

When Arden and Mary passed on they had been buried in the cemetery just down the road from their farm. The farm then had passed on