Whoever thought Sherman Malcolm would be mentioned on a blog in 2011. He may have known my mother existed since she was born a year before he died. It’s a complicated story because I have bits and pieces, and as far as I know, Grandma and Mother only knew little bits.

Sherman Malcolm was married to my Great Great Aunt Sara. She was Grandma’s father’s youngest sister; it was if my great  great grandparents had two families – three boys and  years later, three girls. Wesley was the oldest and my great grandfather; Sara was the youngest and only four years older than my grandmother, Wesley’s daughter. Both girls, my grandma, Jessie, and my great great aunt, Sara, went to college and became teachers.

Grandma married first and eventually Sara married Sherman Malcolm who was an Encyclopedia Britannia salesman. They traveled around the country and Sara kept a journal – about which I will talk later. Every now and then they would come and vacation at my grandmother’s.

And Sherman would go ice fishing. Grandma liked the name Malcolm and gave the name to her son as a middle name.

Then things get fuzzy.

Sara and Sherman got divorced and she got a job in the Veteran’s Administration in Washington D.C; we speculate his health failed and he was in the VA Hospital. She mentioned in some notation somewhere about going out to see Sherman; perhaps the divorce was to allow her to be free to improve her fortunes.

I am not organizing this well, but at least I will get it out now – maybe I’ll smooth it out later.

When Sara and Sherman were married, she handed out large pictures of herself; Sherman thought it funny and handed out little pictures of himself. Today, in a box, I found a set. (I don’t know how I know this, but I do; I suppose it is one of those little pitchers have big ears things.)

And, a couple of days ago, I came across this: **

He died two days after Christmas. Twenty-one years later, I would be celebrating my first Christmas. A few months later, Sara would come to Grandma’s with her second husband, who she called L.D., and she took a lot of pictures of me that summer I turned one. We had homemade ice cream on my first birthday and apparently some rock salt got in the mixture. There must have been some joke about it because for a good part of my life I would hear references to L’D. saying, “I guess I’ll have some more of that salty ice cream.”

Well, you’ll get to know Sherman and Sara as I go through her journals again. They had their picture taken in bathing suits in The Great Salt Lake by “the Kodak man” dontcha know. Perhaps that photo will turn up as well.

For right now, we’re going to step into the Foo Bar,  grab some Cokes and Diet Cokes and raise up a toast to Sherman Malcolm.

P.S. Woo raised her glass and said, “To Sherman, may the fish always find your hole in the ice.” We all stared at her.

** A picture of the funeral home found at this LINK.