Ten Square Yards

Behind the house where Blanche grew up are buried 3 generations

In early May, 2022 I went to the Wade family reunion in Greene County, NC, hosted by my cousins Randy and Jeff Wade, and held at Randy’s house that is just across a pond from the house in which Blanche Sugg, my great grandmother grew up.

My Great Great Granddaddy Henry Lee Sugg, was Blanche’s father, and he is furthest to the left in the picture of a “hog killing” on the farm, likely taken around 1910.

He and my Great Great Grandmother Nannie are buried behind this house, all within 10 square yards of my Great Great Great Grandfather Joseph Sugg, and Great Great Great Great Grandfather Lemuel Sugg, both beside their wives.

As a boy, I used to go to the pond behind this house from time to time with my Granddaddy and and we would fish in the pond, and listen to stories from “Uncle Henry” who disappeared during the Great Depression but came back to Greene County in the 1970s. The furthest person in this photo, taken on the front porch of this house I would guess about 1980, and the man closest is Uncle Harvey Lee Sugg, whose daughter Jo owns this house now and has refurbished it.

When I went to the family reunion in May, I was immediately drawn to the family burial ground—I did not remember it being there. I was as mesmerized by it at age 54 as I did not even see it at 14.

This post does not have any of my own art, but I took photos of a painting that hangs in my cousin Randy’s house (His father Rand Wade was the brother of my Grandmother Maxine, both Blanche’s children.)

And an ink sketch of a guava plant with my reflection in the photo.

Don Taylor