HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The residents of Hanceville Nursing & Rehab recently participated in an Easter egg hunt. Residents, staff and even Dr. Henry Beeler joined in on the fun. Several of the residents reflected on Easter throughout their lives and this is what they shared with The Tribune.
Ruth Voyles
What is your favorite memory of Easter as a child? Wearing my new Easter dress. I couldn’t wear it until Easter Sunday. I tried to wear it before, and one time I sneaked in and got it and put it on. I put my little Easter bonnet on and my shoes and socks. We always got shoes and socks for Easter. Momma caught me and made me pull them off. Daddy wasn’t going to let me go to church because I had done put my clothes on and got them dirty or he was afraid I had. We went to church and come back home and family, we were always together to eat dinner. We would go hide in a room inside the house and they would go outside and hide our Easter eggs. Then we would go out and hunt them. Sometimes, the week before Easter, me and my brother would wrap up rocks and go hide them for each other.
What does Easter mean to you? Well, Jesus rose from the tomb.
Ruth Brigham
What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter? The foil dresses. We always got a new dress for Easter and new shoes. Because of my red hair, mine were always blue or green because mother thought that was all the colors that a redhead should wear. I had pleaded for something pink. She said, “I’m going to make you a green foil dress but I’m going to get you a pink velvet ribbon for your waist.” I was thrilled just to have that color. When I got grown and went to work, one of the first things I bought was a red housecoat because I wanted something of color besides blue and green.
What other special things did your family do at Easter? I was raised during the Depression and we couldn’t afford to go to the movies and we probably wouldn’t have gone anyway. We did family things. I had a sister and four brothers, and we played. It wasn’t a gloomy time, but there wasn’t entertainment at that time available, so it was related around family and home mostly.
What does Easter mean to you? It means to reflect on the death, burial and resurrection of our savior. We always had the special songs, and the Church of Christ, we would take communion every Sunday. The songs refer to the death, burial and resurrection of our savior. Easter is a special, sacred time always in my life.
Margie Laney
In 1951, Laney lost both her parents in a house fire when she was a young child. She and her sister suffered severe burns. Her mother saved both girls before returning to the burning home attempting to save their father.
What is your favorite memory of Easter as a child? When I was little, momma and daddy was alive. Me and my sister and momma and daddy, and my aunts, uncles and everyone would get together and hide eggs and have a big dinner. I miss that. We had dresses. Momma would dress me and my sister just alike. She would make them (sic). I never had my hair cut until I was burned. The fire burned it all, but before that, momma would always take a candle and trim the edges.
What does Easter mean to you now? After the fire, it didn’t mean much. I missed being with my family, hiding eggs and hunting them and everything. Eating and having a party, I miss that. Easter meant spending time with family and going to church. Momma always took us to church.
Carolyn Weeks
What is your favorite memory of Easter? Hunting Easter eggs!
What does Easter mean to you? It means of God.
Annie Graham
What is your favorite memory of Easter as a child? All of us would go to my mother’s house for Easter and the children would hunt eggs after lunch. It was so wonderful because dad was a minister and we would always have the best time.
Did your mom make you a dress every year? No. She helped me make one once. I must have been 12.
What does Easter mean to you now? Jesus
What did you enjoy most about Easter once your children were born? Usually, my family and husband’s family would come to the house and there would always be a lot of children to play with. We were always a close-knit family. After I married, one of my boys wanted me to go to Fairview at the sunlight service with him. I think he was 8 or 9. That was a special service.
Eddie Whitfield
What was your favorite memory of Easter? Easter meant time with my family. We enjoyed hunting and hiding Easter eggs. I loved doing that with my family as a child.
Clara Jenkins
What did you enjoy most about Easter as a child? Well, we didn’t have much. I was on a poor man’s farm. My dad was a farmer. We would have a dinner on Easter. One thing I remember the most, we moved into a house that dad built for us that week. I was 9 years old. My first cousin had his birthday that weekend and we had an Easter egg hunt behind his house. I guess it was a pasture. They hid the eggs and let all us kids tear out there and hunt them. Everyone hunted and hunted but couldn’t find an Easter egg. Some of them hid them, one of the girls- she was still a teenager- she walked down the hill just a few feet and stepped on some grass. The grass turned over a little bit. Being an ol’ country girl, I thought that was unusual. I walked down there and pulled up that grass and there was an Easter egg under it. I was so thrilled! First time I could remember being at an Easter egg hunt away from home. I still have that rabbit. He’s losing his paint and every time we do anything with changing or redoing things in the house, I always save my rabbit. It had jelly beans in it. It was about 8 inches high and then, there was an Easter basket in front of him that he had his jelly beans in. I remember that so well. My first exciting Easter egg hunt.
Once you had kids, did you do something special each year for Easter? We had an Easter egg hunt every year. Easter was special. We’d color the eggs and fix them for them. Sometimes in bad weather, we would hide them in the house. If it wasn’t, we would hide them outside and sometimes we would go to a family member’s house. A whole bunch of kids was there, and they would just hunt and hunt.
What does Easter mean to you now? I know that we celebrate, and the Bible tells us about Easter and what it’s for- Christ rising. I think of that and try to make it worthwhile. I try to remember all about what I can that the Bible tells us about it. About His death and His resurrection and everything.
Margene Manning
What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter? We would hide eggs and try to get that prize egg. Yesterday, I got a prize out of a bucket with a bunny rabbit in it.
At church, we would have an Easter egg hunt and hide them. It was always so good to have that at church. We enjoyed that.
What does Easter mean to you? Jesus. He is the master of Easter. It has a Christian effect on you, Easter does.
What did you do with your children for Easter? Dying the Easter eggs and putting the little stamps and designs on the eggs. That was always a treat to dye your eggs when you got home.
Lola Paschal
What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter? Finding out what Easter is all about. Going to church and hunting Easter eggs.
What does Easter mean to you? What Jesus did and what it was for. He rose from the dead.
Ethel Wade
What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter? Easter eggs, and we enjoyed eating the eggs. I like to dye the eggs, too.
What does Easter mean to you? We had a lot of people come to see us and we always ate a lot of food and got to see family.
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