Mary’s paternal grandfather, also James Gilruth (and Baby Grace)

Elsie and James Collin Gilruth: James in 1915 (top right) and in 1893.

Both of these men were often violently angry with the child who most resembled them. This sad tradition probably went back a couple hundred years (or more) to Scotland. My great-grandfather and my grandfather were often at loggerheads; my grandfather had no use for my mother, either. Both “Daddy Jim” and Mom were victims of parental wrath that often made no sense and that they passed on. It was one of the reasons I didn’t want to have children myself.

However, it’s all in the past! Hooray!