grandfather

My dad and his siblings called their father Papa. His name was Burruss Finlayson. Although all of Burruss' siblings had middle name - no one knows his full name - if he had one. I was once told that Papa didn't like his full name and decided to take it to his grave.

The photo I scanned is pretty small. As I magnified it, I asked my mom who she thought Burruss Finlayson looked like. She said that this picture he looked a lot like Murdoch - or Murdoch like his Papa. Mother said that grandfather Finlayson died two weeks before Westbrook graduated Mercer Law School. Grandfather died in 1951 - before dad moved to Alabama and met his wife to be.

The house behind Papa is the house where my dad and his siblings grew up. Mom told me that the porch is where my dad and uncle Pat used to toss baseball to one another when they were little. Last Summer while we were in Cheraw for uncle Murdoch's funeral - Brook, Mom, Florrie and I drove around the neighborhood. We didn't have an aunt or uncle tour guide with us because of the occasion - but we found the spot on US 1 where the house used to stand. Mother told me that the trip to Murdoch's funeral was the very first time that my youngest sister Florrie had ever been to Cheraw.