My great-great-grandparents lived during the depression era, and like many people in America at that time, were very poor. My great-great-grandpa managed to buy some land from his uncle so he and my great-great-grandma could build a house on it. Since they couldn’t afford construction materials brand-new, they salvaged boards and stripped out the nails from an abandoned house. The total construction time was from 1938 to 1940.The new house was small--only two bedrooms and a small kitchen. They used an outhouse because there was no bathroom, and a sunroom porch was added on later.   My great-great-grandma, known as Gammy, died before I was born, but my grandma said she loved plants and kept lots of them in the little sunroom. My great-aunt said that if any of the plants dropped leaves, she couldn’t bear to let them die and would put the leaves in jars and start new plants with them.Her husband gave her a hoya carnosa (also known as a waxplant or porcelain flower) that she later propagated into three plants. I now have one of them hanging in my room, which is pretty crazy to think about since the plant is more than eighty years old.My great-aunt says I inherited Gammy’s green thumb, and I guess that’s true. After all, my room is covered in plants, just like Gammy’s sunroom. I hope to keep the hoya alive as long as I can, and hopefully pass it on to a future relative. 

– AU

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more