THIRTEEN THOUSAND DAYS

   

                Above: My great-grandmother: 

                  Mrs. Dora Ono (Wilcox) Lee

It's not entirely untrue - that is this post's title of Thirteen Thousand Days. In this wedding day portrait reminiscent of a nineteenth-century impressionist, the title is meant to reflect her life in its entirety. Her life was short, but it was terribly and beautifully full. Indeed, she lived another hundred days or so longer. 

Ever a tidy and sweet lady, my great-grandmother and mother of seven children saw fit to leave this world a mere one day after her thirty-sixth birthday.

Such was the bittersweet beauty of Mrs. Ono Wilcox Lee

There is only a little to write about here regarding Ono. I could include the news clips of a young woman heading off to the University in the late 1890s but that only tells part of the story. I think it amazingly cool that the Wilcox/Hoyt clan put a value on education and had no issue with sending a young woman to a place of higher learning. She was probably studying to be a teacher. She was certainly aspiring to be someone or something more than the norm.

           

I think the best thing about my great-grandmother Ono came in this prophetic letter she wrote to her husband Burt after the death of their son John. I think she saw what was coming her way in a few short years. Ono was only about twenty-six years old when she wrote this letter. To me, she seems wise beyond her years. How could she have known what was coming??

Somehow in her heart, she did.

Here below, in her own words...

"March 1908

   My Dear Burt ~

This is a beautiful day - & fills me with an increased longing to have you near me - It seems as though it certainly won't be much longer until we have a little family of two again - and knowing how uncertain life is, & unprepared we all are for the end - I just want you to know that you have been more to me than you will ever know - I will admit I have had a great many heart-aches as we have gone on our little voyage together, a good cause for some of them and no cause (as I afterward learned,) for some of them, and darling I can look back over my days - & see a vast number of mistakes, that caused you, no doubt, more pains than I will ever know - but dear one, I have regretted a great many times doing things that caused you pain, when I knew of what I had done - but I guess those little misunderstandings are, after all, what makes our lives more perfect - & let us hope & pray, if we are left together, that the little crosses of our lives grow less & less - & we may grow nearer the Master who has seen fit to take two of our precious ones up to him - to await our coming - which I pray, we may be found ready when the call is given - 

Now dear one in case I should be called, & our baby is a girl - I would be glad to have her named Doretha - I would rather you let Mama raise the babies, but I don't give them to anyone, for if I am gone, all is yours that I have left - even to part of my life - Your loving wife - 

Dora Ono Lee"

An interesting part about Ono's letter is that she mentions two deceased babies - I have yet to locate a name or a record of more than just Little John.

Ono's stunning graveside funeral at night was a spectacle of flowers and lights.

I thought I might include this open she wrote about the pain she felt in the loss of her son John. I think it not only captures her sadness but also her eloquence. 

Ono was quite a lady.

This is all I've got for my great-grandmother Ono Lee. I think her own words tell her story the best. It's funny. Out of my ten great-grandparents (adopted and biological), I only knew three of them in actuality.

I think I wish I'd had a chance to meet and know Mrs. Ono Lee the most.

PEACE.