Grandma Samson: Part 2--The Family

Soon after my grandparents’ marriage, my grandmother became pregnant with my father Floyd, who was born on September 16, 1912. Around this time, my Grandma began to use “Rose” instead of “Rosa” as her given name, and that is how she was known all her life. We knew that she was originally “Rosa Anna” because she had her First Communion and Confirmation certificates framed and hung in my grandparents’ bedroom. Grandpa apparently chose my father’s name: Floyd Donald. But my grandmother named the other children!

The family of three lived in the area of St. Francis parish; that was where my father was baptized. While my grandmother was pregnant, she made the christening (baptismal) gown for the baby. Both my grandparents were raised in devout Roman Catholic families. In the Catholic church, babies were usually baptized as soon as possible after birth so that they would go to Heaven if they died (very common in those days). If a baby died without being baptized, it was believed that the baby would go to a place called Limbo, a nice place but they would never be in the presence of God because they still carried the “stain” of Original Sin, the Church taught. In addition, unbaptized babies could not be buried in the sacred ground of the Catholic cemetery; they were buried in unconsecrated ground in a special section. So my father was baptized about a week after his birth. I don’t know who his godparents where; that’s something I’ll have to investigate.

Soon my grandfather began to build a house for the family in the northern part of the city at 1925 Storrs Avenue, just a block east of Oneida Street, one of the major north-south streets. It was near Kemble Street School (the elementary school) and Utica Free Academy (the high school). Only a block away was a spacious city park. The house was not far from Our Lady of Lourdes Church, where the family began to attend church and where all the Samson boys made their First Communion and Confirmation.

When my father was about 4 years old, my grandmother gave birth to a baby girl who died soon after birth. However, she lived long enough to be baptized in the hospital and was named Rosemary Catherine. We know that she was baptized, because even though my father said she died at birth, she was buried in the consecrated area of St. Agnes Catholic Cemetery. My brother worked at the cemetery during his high school summers, and he came upon her grave. She must have been born alive and baptized, because stillborn (dead) babies could NOT be baptized.

The death of Rosemary threw my grandmother into a deep depression. In addition, my father had a terrible asthmatic condition. So my grandfather took their doctor’s advice and took the family to to St. Augustine, Florida, for the winter months of 1916-17. The doctor thought that the warmer climate at the seaside would be good for my father, and a change of scenery might help ease Grandma’s depression. They took many photographs on their prolonged vacation; I was able to look at them with my grandmother and Uncle Donald after my grandfather’s death. I recall that there was a lovely photo of my father and his father with a toy sailboat at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. I really loved that photo and wish I had asked for it then. Uncle Donald took possession of the photos after Grandma died, and then they passed to my Uncle Bob. I know one of my cousins has at least some of the photos; perhaps other cousins have the others.