Aunt Inez

It is somtimes a little strange to me,how the actions and reactions of our predecessors may influence people whom may live in a completly different era or decade than the person who actually lived an event,the event may or might not have had important historical consequence in regard to national or world history,and may have,at the time,merely effected one person or one family.This story is primarily about the
suicide death of my great aunt Inez Mitchum.For while it happened before i was born,even before my parents met,it still had echoing effects that seem to have enfluenced my personal life.
Aunt Inez,like my Father,lived in Mellow Valley Alabama,she was the second of three children still living in the home of my GrandParents,
my "Dad to be" and a younger sister were the other two,with my "Dad" as the oldest.As it has been passed down to me by word of mouth,this is how the story goes.
My Father and Aunt Inez had gone to the County Line Baptist Church in Mellow Valley to attend a dinner on the grounds and an all day gospel singing,Aunt Inez had accompanied my Father in the Family horse drawn buggy,as there were very few,if any, cars at that time,and Aunt Inez was a member of that church,my father being a Methodist, attended the Mount Carmel Methodist church a few miles in the other direction.However since there was only one buggy,he agreed to go with Aunt Inez and attend the festivities.
Aunt Inez had a boy friend at church and i believe they would have called him a beau in the vernacular of that era,today he would be called a Fiance.At any rate,at the close of the day's preaching and singing,Aunt Inez wanted to ride home with her friend and Dad said it was alright with him,however,before the couple could get away from the Church,Dad found out that another
male friend of of Aunt Inez would be ridding home with the couple,there insued a mild fracas and Aunt Inez was forbidden to ride with the two friends,Dad telling her the "nice" girls did not ride home with two boys.Visibly upset by the fight with her friends and the harsh words of my
Dad,Aunt Inez dutifuly but silently rode home with my Dad as she was requested to do.
Now my grand father had been having trouble with field mice in the barn and had two days before,purchased a bottle of strichnine,telling everyone in the family that it was very poisonous and had placed the bottle above the living room door on a shelf,intending to poison the mice and thus rid the barn of them on Monday.
This was to prove a huge mistake.
Upon ariving home from church,Aunt Inez walked right passed my Grand Father who was reading to him self from the family bible on the front porch of the family home,not speaking a word to him nor anyone else,she went right to where he had placed the strichnine,took down the bottle and drank about half it's contents.
I will spare you the grisley discription of her death and let it suffice to say that just at the point of death,she spoke to her Mother and said that there were three angels at the foot of her bed singing the most beautiful music that she had ever heard,these words spoken,Aunt Inez passed into her final reward.
She was buried at the very church where she and my Dad had attended the all day singing and dinner on the ground three days earlier.
It was not an historical moment,as world events go,and perhaps only recieved a brief notice in the church bulletin,her funeral was perhaps only attened by a few friends and relatives.
My Grand Mother took her death very hard and would visit her grave almost on a dailey basis,taking my younger Aunt agnes with her.Aunt Agnes would amuse herself by playing with a small carved lamb on a near by baby's grave while my Grand Mother would pet the Earth and talk to her dead Daughter buried beneath.
After a month of this,my Grand Father consulted the local Doctor who advized him to move away from Mellow Valley and perhaps this would tend to aleve the stress of being so near the place where Inez was buried.My Grand Father took his family to Lagrange Georgia,my father became an eposodic alcoholic,trying to forget the memory of his part in the death of his sister,he eventually met and married my Mother and i was born in Lagrange Georgia instead of Mellow Valley Alabama.
When the inevitable divorce of my Father and Mother occurred,i ended up in Phenix City Alabama,living with my Mom and her new husband,Mr.Massey Julian Ward.At the age of seventeen,i joined the U.S.Army.
So,yes,i think that i can truthfully say,that the death of a paternal Aunt in 1920,had a great deal of influence on my life which began in 1940.

Story ID:	2040
Written by:	Bobby O'neill Mitchum (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family History
Location:	Phenix City Alabama U.S.A.
Year:	2007
Person:	SELF