Names and faces

Posted on October 18, 2026 by Jo Mayne Casey

I am an old woman named after my mother…

first line of “Angel from Montgomery” by John Prine

The story was told from the time I could listen that Mom & Dad were so sure that I was a boy that they called me “Charlie” for 9 months and were at a loss for a name when I turned out to be a girl. Dad wanted name me Ruby after Mom, but she didn’t like that name. Her middle name was Christina, so they agreed that was a good moniker. They added the one-syllable “Jo” and voila! I was formally assigned the appellation.

They never called me Christina. Ever. Even when I started school, they instructed the instructors that I was Jo Mayne – sounds like ptomaine, if you want to make fun. Over the years, Mom’s explanation for not using such a pretty name varied. The first answer was that it was too long for my 17-month-older sister to say. Eventually, she confessed that the name was her Grandmother’s and that she didn’t much like her grandmother, and that they called her Teeny and she didn’t like that.

Her grandmother, my great-grandma, was Christina Caroline Kirsch, and she was also named after her mother, Caroline Christina Rudi Kirsch. Both Caroline and her husband, Nicholas, were born in Germany. The community they lived in and raised Christina included many German immigrants who brought their strong work ethic and intelligence to building their new life in Crawford County, Indiana.

Not long before my Mom died, she told me that being a grandmother made her realize that she had misjudged her granny. One big reason she disliked her was because Christina wouldn’t let her run around with her younger cousins, but kept her with her. Mom realized that she’d been shown a side of her grandma that the others didn’t know as she taught her about gardening and cooking.

Since nearly every story from my cousins who knew her related that she was “terrifying”, I guess Mom did see something the others missed. I don’t know if she realized that they also shared a birthday – no doubt why Mom was given her name- but I’m sure Christina knew and gave her special attention.

My brother and sister and I called her “Little Grandma” and I remember seeing her once as a very young child. She lived across the street from my “Big Grandma” and one day when I was playing on the porch, she came up the steps and stopped to look at me before going on in the house. It’s one of those early, hazy memories, but she had a piercing gaze – not quite terrifying, but she was pretty old by then.

I have only one picture of her, sitting on a stool next to her husband, Halleck Goodson, but that picture jumped out of the box at me a couple of months ago and demanded attention. I have done my research and don’t have any new information about her, really, so I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. I think now that she is pointing me to the cemeteries in Crawford County.

Christina Kirsch Goodson, my great-grandmother (I think she looks like me!)

Decades ago, Mom and her sisters did a trip to English, IN, where their Dad’s family had lived and were buried, but nobody seemed to know anything about the Goodsons or Kirsches. I’ve got a lot of information, compiled over at All My Ancestors, and now, Thanks to my ancestor’s nudge, we’re heading up to Leavenworth and Corydon this week to check out the gravestones and get a feel for the area. These are some old ones, so I hope they’re not in too bad of shape.

There’s something missing in Christina’s story – how did she end up with Halleck, a boozing, illiterate, hillbilly 7 years her senior? I hope something clicks as we tour the hills and river bottoms where she raised my Grandma and her siblings.

The Jrs. will be by for some potato soup and apple pie around noon, so I’ve got to move on for now.

We’re blessed with Abundant Sunshine today and forecast for the next week! I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Sunday Report

Hope y’all have had a Peaceful, Loving Mothers’ Day

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Jo Mayne Casey

I hope you have enjoyed your day as much as I have! The Edible Garden is nearly all planted! We have planted 6 cucumber plants, 8 cantaloupe, 4 butternut squash, 6 zucchini, 6 yellow squash, 2 pineapple sage, 2 bee balm, 6 basil, 1 lemon verbena, 2 chive, 6 tomatoes, and 3 blanket flower. I’m waiting a bit longer to put in my bell peppers, and I have yet to buy my green beans. I have marigolds and nasturtium ready to be tucked in here and there.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Mothers’ Day than in the garden, mothering the earth. Both of the progeny called to chat. Melissa sent me a 50mm lens for my Nikon and I’m going to start a new photography project soon. I’m dirty and tired and the day has been gorgeous.

Here’s a bit of mushy Mothers’ Day message from 2020…

Posted on May 10, 2020 •Edit”Wishing you All a Peaceful, Loving Mothers’ Day”

I read an article the other day: 10 Unforgettable Literary Moms. I came away with one quote that resonated my heart.

It’s a quote from Toni Morrisson’s deeply haunting book “Beloved”. I confess, I didn’t get very far into the book before I set it down. It was a glimpse into a world that is so disturbing and painful that it caused me pain, too. I’ve always said I’ll get back to it when the Time is right because there is something to learn about suffering from it. At any rate, here’s the quote from Sethe, whose tragic past has complicated her relationship with her daughter, 18-year-old Denver. Despite all of Sethe’s problems, she is a Mother.

Grown don’t mean a thing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart, it don’t mean a thing.

She’s not talking about “raising” a child here. She’s talking about the ineffeable feeling of Being a Mother. There are no words, though I’ve just spent an hour trying to write some. It is Mystical Spiritual Love that is instinctively protective and nurturing. It doesn’t change just because your children reach a certain age.

It’s not about the Love you receive from your children. It’s not about what a Good Mother you are or aren’t. It’s about that Spirit that enters you when you give birth, committing you to a Lifetime of Support to your creation.

I know that some mothers don’t feel it and I’m sad for them and their children. Most of us, though, have been Blessed by that Love. Now that my kids are parents, they, too, know that Ever-Present Love and Caring for their kids.

It doesn’t change, no matter how much anger or sadness has found its way into your lives. It is Forever and Always.

It isn’t easy, this mothering thing. We try our best to keep sight of that inexpressible Love when times are trying, but ain’t nobody perfect. The Perfect Mother is one who has done her Best…and that’s all of us…and that’s Good Enough.

They are still my children, my babies. In my heart, they never are Grown, but I sure do respect them as Adults. They are Good People. I love being their Mom and am so grateful. (I really like those grandkids, too, but that’s yet another Indescribable Love!)

Peace

Sunday Report

Weekly Wrap-up

Posted on March 15, 2026 by Jo Mayne Casey

There’s nothing like a trip to Rural King to get you in the Spring planting mood. Monday morning I bought an excessive amount of seeds for both early starts and my countertop garden, and grabbed up a houseplant.

Casey got his pressure washer delivered and my back porch has been transformed.

Check out my new raised beds. He’s tilling them today and we’ll get a load of soil next week.

I spent a lot of last week following up on what I’d spent the week before thinking/stewing about. In the last decade, we’ve all seen families torn apart by politics/religion, and one of them was my birth family. You know, if you’ve been paying attention, that after the last election I turned it off, changed my habit of living in the internet world of “news”, but one can hardly avoid the fact that he’s started a war. I don’t know if that’s why, or is it something else, but many americans are beginning to see him in a different light.

So it was that a couple of the estranged-ers reached out to me (after 10 years!), a little embarrassed and even ashamed, kind of like they woke up… I have grieved losing these dearly-loved people, and once I was sure that they were sincere, my family and I opened our circle. We stepped back and made room for more Love. We are Family and we’ll do whatever it takes to hold each other up, to help us get through.

I hope we’ve reached a tipping point somehow and more and more of us come together to repair what has been so tragically broken in our country and in our hearts.

Looking ahead…

We’re expecting a hard freeze Monday and Tuesday, so we’re preparing some covers for our roses. We’ve lost the first buds for the last two years! But my lovely forsythia have got their blooming done…

I don’t care if the Irish like it or not, I’m having corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes on St. Paddy’s Day. This year, I’m adding a new dessert: Lucky Charms Treat Bars, which should be magically delicious.

Then there’s Ostara, the Vernal Equinox, the #1 day of Spring. That involves quiche, green salads, baked bread.

Hope Springs Eternal…I hope…

Peace

Sunday Report

The Final Sunday Report

Posted on August 22, 2021November 8, 2021 by Jo Mayne Casey

Last week I spent some time staring at the campfire and contemplating. Something inside me kept saying “I’m done” in a loop. I’d been feeling my age lately and this year’s Camp Sonnystone really brought it home as I cope with my grandies growing up in what seems the blink of an eye. But there’s no reason to think that I’m done, not at all; with so many good times to look forward to and our health still strong, I couldn’t justify that sort of morbid thinking. So I examined it more closely, listened more intently.

This blog means so much to me; it is the Chronicle of my Life. Including the defunct blog, for the last 16 years it has witnessed the birth of all my grandchildren and my evolution as a JoJo. Through two organist jobs, two nursing jobs, Christmases, Birthdays, Camps, and plenty of Disney Trips we’ve watched the grandies grow. But there were also lots of topics; I did interviews, reviewed every “Best Motion Picture” Oscar winner, went through my CD collection with comments, occasionally talked politics, often talked about Peace. There were some deaths, as well: Aunts Thelma, Almeda, and Shirley; Uncle Jr; my friends, NuNu, Lois, Chuck, and Beaver. I’ve taken you on lots of trips with us, kept you apprised of what’s growing in the garden, what birds are at the feeder, and sometimes just blathered.

Even though I upgraded my WP account, I have now very nearly filled up all the allotted media space for Sonnystone and for the garden blog, Growing Every Season, which I started around the same time. At first I thought I would do a whole lot of work to download and delete old posts, but I kept putting it off. The next upgrade costs quite a bit more money and is more for a monetized blog. I believe the voice that was saying “I’m done” meant that I’m done with this particular blog and the obligation that I feel to keep it going.

To give The News a proper send-off, I compiled a video of photos. In order to not make it an hour long, I concentrated on just the people, then had to pare it down more to mostly grandies growing up. The music that I chose is poignant; Over the Rainbow and Wonderful World by Iz, the wonderful Hawaiian artist. He speaks in one part, almost unintelligible, but he’s using two Hawaiian words: “kuleana” has multiple meanings, including “land divisions”, but represents your space or spirit; “pono” which means “to make correct” or “to make good”. So what he means is that kuleana pono is an “automatic plan”, that if you make your space, your spirit good, “stuff” is just waiting to come to you, waiting until you are ready.

It makes me kind of anxious to think of not blogging every week, so I remind myself that I’ll still be keeping up the ancestry blog, and our trips will still be recorded over at the travel blog. The fact is I need to let go and open my mind up to new things, especially regarding my writing. By letting go, I will open up my spirit for some of that “stuff” that has just been waiting until I’m ready.

Thank-you for following along with me. I have truly enjoyed your company. Now I’m taking one long look back, then turning out the light, closing the door behind me.

Peace

Camp Sonnystone 2021

Sunday Report 8-8-2021

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Jo Mayne Casey

There is nowhere else I’d rather be than with my grandkids, so the last two weeks have been heaven. As usual, Camp Sonnystone 2021 was a rousing success. Our Word was Believe, and our Theme was Rainbows. We ate well, swam a lot, painted, made suncatchers, sang, danced, laughed and had a few tears just to keep it real. My daughter has been making regular posts to FB, but for my WP followers, here’s a few pictures.

I’m just beginning to work on a video and hope to share that with you next week.

Peace

Sunday Report

Late Report 7-25-2021

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Jo Mayne Casey

They’re almost here! As I write this they are 1 hour and 20 minutes away!!! We’ve spent the day finishing prep and I seriously Forgot to blog this morning…

The Jose’s are just in time for fresh green beans, an abundance of squash and zucchini, tomatoes of all kinds, bell peppers, cucumbers–all the crops seem to have turned for their visit!

They probably will be gone by the time this canteloupe ripens, but isn’t the sling charming?

The Garden is waiting expectantly for little hands helping harvest…

The New Yorkers will be in town for two weeks and we have a lot of time after August 1 for anyone who wants to visit. Just send one of us a message and we’ll add another plate to the table.

Peace