My cousin (well, actually my grandfather Cady's cousin) Eula was one of the fascinating and exceptional women I have known. My first "acquaintance" with her was from an old picture in a photo album my father got from his mother. The picture showed my father as a young boy squirming in the front row of a large group at an outdoor setting. I noticed a young girl sitting next to him and he remembered clearly her name was Eula Lamphere and she was his age and that the picture was from a family reunion of the descendants of George Klumpp in Weedsport NY. Sitting behind the two of them in the picture was an older girl watching over them, who I later learned was Eula's older sister, Helen. Many years later, when I started researching my family, I visited the cemetery where my father's family was buried in Weedsport. I was looking at the Lamphere and Klumpp markers when the cemetery caretaker came over to ask me if he could help me find someone. I told him the name Eula Lamphere (which I never forgot) and thought he might tell me she was buried nearby, but it turns out she was alive and well and living nearby. She had never married, but I had assumed she had so I had never looked for her.
I sent her a letter introducing myself and asking if I could visit. I got an instant and insistent reply that I should come as soon as possible, that she and her sister Helen would love to meet me. Meeting Eula at her home was like meeting a long lost friend. I felt at home at once. She was retired from the Weedsport school system, but she was also so much more. Eula was a talented artist, a playwright, a historian, newspaper columnist, and an all around wonderful person! We visited together for hours and she taught me much about my family history. I still treasure photographs she gave me on my ancestors on my father's side. People I had never seen before!
My father was living in Colorado, but I was able to show her pictures of him, as well as recent pictures of the Lake Ontario cottage where she and her sister had spent time with my father and his family when they were young. The next summer my father was able to come to Weedsport with me to meet Helen and Eula. It was wonderful to see. My father had never had any family that I knew of as he was the only child of two only children...and suddenly he had cousins!
We kept in touch for many years after that, and Helen and Eula were even able to revisit the Lake Ontario cottage that they hadn't seen in over 50 years. I was the one who called them when my father had heart surgery that went badly and injured his brain. When he died in 2007, Eula was at his funeral. Helen was not able to make it, having recently moved to a Senior care facility and a few years later, Eula moved there as well. She and Helen had rooms within sight of each other where they had their books and art supplies.
Eula - I will miss you, your smile, your wonderful stories and your letters with on the note-cards with your beautiful paintings. It is comforting knowing that you and Helen, who were so inseparable in life are together once again. Thank you for all you taught me and for introducing me to a side of the family had known nothing about.
I sent her a letter introducing myself and asking if I could visit. I got an instant and insistent reply that I should come as soon as possible, that she and her sister Helen would love to meet me. Meeting Eula at her home was like meeting a long lost friend. I felt at home at once. She was retired from the Weedsport school system, but she was also so much more. Eula was a talented artist, a playwright, a historian, newspaper columnist, and an all around wonderful person! We visited together for hours and she taught me much about my family history. I still treasure photographs she gave me on my ancestors on my father's side. People I had never seen before!
My father was living in Colorado, but I was able to show her pictures of him, as well as recent pictures of the Lake Ontario cottage where she and her sister had spent time with my father and his family when they were young. The next summer my father was able to come to Weedsport with me to meet Helen and Eula. It was wonderful to see. My father had never had any family that I knew of as he was the only child of two only children...and suddenly he had cousins!
We kept in touch for many years after that, and Helen and Eula were even able to revisit the Lake Ontario cottage that they hadn't seen in over 50 years. I was the one who called them when my father had heart surgery that went badly and injured his brain. When he died in 2007, Eula was at his funeral. Helen was not able to make it, having recently moved to a Senior care facility and a few years later, Eula moved there as well. She and Helen had rooms within sight of each other where they had their books and art supplies.
Eula - I will miss you, your smile, your wonderful stories and your letters with on the note-cards with your beautiful paintings. It is comforting knowing that you and Helen, who were so inseparable in life are together once again. Thank you for all you taught me and for introducing me to a side of the family had known nothing about.
My cousin (well, actually my grandfather Cady's cousin) Eula was one of the fascinating and exceptional women I have known. My first "acquaintance" with her was from an old picture in a photo album my father got from his mother. The picture showed my father as a young boy squirming in the front row of a large group at an outdoor setting. I noticed a young girl sitting next to him and he remembered clearly her name was Eula Lamphere and she was his age and that the picture was from a family reunion of the descendants of George Klumpp in Weedsport NY. Sitting behind the two of them in the picture was an older girl watching over them, who I later learned was Eula's older sister, Helen. Many years later, when I started researching my family, I visited the cemetery where my father's family was buried in Weedsport. I was looking at the Lamphere and Klumpp markers when the cemetery caretaker came over to ask me if he could help me find someone. I told him the name Eula Lamphere (which I never forgot) and thought he might tell me she was buried nearby, but it turns out she was alive and well and living nearby. She had never married, but I had assumed she had so I had never looked for her.
I sent her a letter introducing myself and asking if I could visit. I got an instant and insistent reply that I should come as soon as possible, that she and her sister Helen would love to meet me. Meeting Eula at her home was like meeting a long lost friend. I felt at home at once. She was retired from the Weedsport school system, but she was also so much more. Eula was a talented artist, a playwright, a historian, newspaper columnist, and an all around wonderful person! We visited together for hours and she taught me much about my family history. I still treasure photographs she gave me on my ancestors on my father's side. People I had never seen before!
My father was living in Colorado, but I was able to show her pictures of him, as well as recent pictures of the Lake Ontario cottage where she and her sister had spent time with my father and his family when they were young. The next summer my father was able to come to Weedsport with me to meet Helen and Eula. It was wonderful to see. My father had never had any family that I knew of as he was the only child of two only children...and suddenly he had cousins!
We kept in touch for many years after that, and Helen and Eula were even able to revisit the Lake Ontario cottage that they hadn't seen in over 50 years. I was the one who called them when my father had heart surgery that went badly and injured his brain. When he died in 2007, Eula was at his funeral. Helen was not able to make it, having recently moved to a Senior care facility and a few years later, Eula moved there as well. She and Helen had rooms within sight of each other where they had their books and art supplies.
Eula - I will miss you, your smile, your wonderful stories and your letters with on the note-cards with your beautiful paintings. It is comforting knowing that you and Helen, who were so inseparable in life are together once again. Thank you for all you taught me and for introducing me to a side of the family had known nothing about.
I sent her a letter introducing myself and asking if I could visit. I got an instant and insistent reply that I should come as soon as possible, that she and her sister Helen would love to meet me. Meeting Eula at her home was like meeting a long lost friend. I felt at home at once. She was retired from the Weedsport school system, but she was also so much more. Eula was a talented artist, a playwright, a historian, newspaper columnist, and an all around wonderful person! We visited together for hours and she taught me much about my family history. I still treasure photographs she gave me on my ancestors on my father's side. People I had never seen before!
My father was living in Colorado, but I was able to show her pictures of him, as well as recent pictures of the Lake Ontario cottage where she and her sister had spent time with my father and his family when they were young. The next summer my father was able to come to Weedsport with me to meet Helen and Eula. It was wonderful to see. My father had never had any family that I knew of as he was the only child of two only children...and suddenly he had cousins!
We kept in touch for many years after that, and Helen and Eula were even able to revisit the Lake Ontario cottage that they hadn't seen in over 50 years. I was the one who called them when my father had heart surgery that went badly and injured his brain. When he died in 2007, Eula was at his funeral. Helen was not able to make it, having recently moved to a Senior care facility and a few years later, Eula moved there as well. She and Helen had rooms within sight of each other where they had their books and art supplies.
Eula - I will miss you, your smile, your wonderful stories and your letters with on the note-cards with your beautiful paintings. It is comforting knowing that you and Helen, who were so inseparable in life are together once again. Thank you for all you taught me and for introducing me to a side of the family had known nothing about.
