This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

LUCIE and VAN
Some in the family called her Aunt Lucie, but many called her Nanan. gloria, Marguerite and I did. Horace Whitfield, Jr. told me all of the Whitfields did. Nanan means Godmother in French. She was Teen's Godmother, not mine.
Although Nanan had no children of her own, I know of no one in the family who has earned a maternal type of love more deservedly than Lucie. The statistical evidence shows she was only eleven years older than Luva, Uncle Van's oldest child.
Yet, when she married Uncle Van she cared for his four children as a loving and concerned stepmother. All of her life she loved the Whitfield children, and their children. The family had many tragedies and she was there suffering through them all. Horace Whitfield, Jr. has written a beautiful memorial to Nanan and Uncle Van.
As the oldest Blanchard child she was like a second mother to most of her brothers and sisters. I know Teen and Elvie loved her with a devotion more akin to love for a mother than for a sister.
My first recollection of Nanan and Uncle Van was in Bay St. Louis when she lived on Blue Meadow Road. Our grandmother lived with her and died in that home. There was no one better qualified to nurse our grandmother in her last illness than Nanan.
After our grandmother died in July 1935, Nanan and Uncle Van came to live with us in Little Woods. I do not recall exactly when they came, but I understand it was to help nurse my mother who was ill and had to undergo surgery. My mother, Corinne, died (see Corinne's section). For Gloria and me that was a terrible event to experience. Since it was God's Will that we loose our mother, it was God's Providence that he placed Nanan and Uncle Van to be with us. The horrible, lonely, confusing days following her death were made more acceptable by the love, understanding, wisdom and prayfulness of that wonderful lady, Nanan and the equally caring and sensitive Uncle Van.
I don't know how long Nanan and Uncle Van stayed after Mama died, but it was for some time (maybe 8 or 9 months). Long enough to get Gloria and me adjusted, with nurturing love, to life without Mama. I read in the letter Nanan wrote to Elvie about Mama's death that Daddy asked her to stay and help raise Gloria and me.
I remember Uncle Van as being the same from my earliest recollections until his death in 1962. He always seemed old to me, he was quiet, he had a good sense of humor. He laughed readily and heartily. When they lived with us the school I attended had an annual school performance with,each class presenting a song and dance. My class, 2nd grade, dressed as blacks with black stockings covering our faces. We, sang "Lil Liza Jane". Uncle Van laughed until tears rolled from his eyes. When I returned