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The girl standing up is Margaret Jane Sullivan Reid and she is my great-grandmother born on July 28, 1878.  The one sitting in his lap is my great-great-aunt Beulah Josephine Sullivan Clemens born on July 24, 1881. The man is my great-great-grandfather, William Carroll Sullivan. He was born in 1849. 

William Sullivan was a doctor. His wife died and he was a widower. Doctors in those days didn’t make a lot of money.  A lot of his payments were in chicken, produce, and other bartered items.  Think “Doctor Baker” from “Little House on the Prairie”. Because he didn’t have a lot of ready cash, he couldn’t take care of the girls. They stayed with his older brother Willis who had a wife and kids and lived on a farm.  

People say I look like Josephine. Josephine and Margaret called each other “Sister”, but everyone called Josephine “Sis”. She died when I was a baby, but she got to see me before she died. My Dad calls me “Sis” or “Sister” as has commented that I remind him of her.

Sis was an artist and had no professional training.  These are some of the pictures she painted. She was in her teens when she painted these. I haven’t had any “formal” training either.  I’ve taken art classes in school and in college, but haven’t taken anything focused on painting/drawing.  It is just something I can do.

I think about that and I think about Sis.  From all I have heard about her, it is always good so if I’m destined to paint and remind people of someone, I don’t think I could have picked a better person even if I tried.

Thank you “Sister” for leaving your legacy on Earth and sharing your bloodlines with me so I can emulate you.