Women In My Family History: Part 21

Charlotte Ann Rairigh Rohrer

1930 - 1990

There is probably no really effective way to articulate the impact a mother has on a person's life.   No doubt myself,  my siblings and my father were very fortunate to have had my mother in our lives.  Charlotte Ann Rairigh was born in 1930.  In 1953 she married my dad and they had four children.   Some of the gifts I feel my mother gave to me was the value system she stressed upon us.  Education,  thriftiness,  and diligent work were all things that she impressed in our minds as we grew up.  She was a very intelligent woman and very much wanted her children and grandchildren to move on up the economic ladder.   At times she could be too controlling but she grew as her children grew and by the time of her death in 1990 she was no longer trying to direct my life choices.  As an adult the thing that looking back I appreciate very much was her sense of fairness.  Whatever she did for one of us she equaled out by doing something of equal time and value to each of the others.  When I was young she was interested in family history and doing genealogy.  That was back in the 1960’s and 1970’s and before the age of the internet so she did a lot of snail mail correspondence.   I remember being taken on lots of “family field trips”  where we all had to walk around cemeteries and look for particular names on stones.  I didn’t appreciate it at the time but  about ten years after her death her  family tree cardboard box came into my possession.  It brought her back to me to see her hand written notes, remember the places we had been and to read the letters she had written back and forth with other more distant family members. There were some old photos and bibles in the box.  To make a long story short I was hooked and have spent many hours  enjoying my hobby of genealogy.   Also my mom had started nursing school when she was young and quit her training to get married. Later she went back and finished.  So my nursing career interest was fueled by watching her complete her RN.  

Charlotte Rairigh ~ 1950 or so

Please enjoy the video that follows about the history of nursing in America.