Profile: LELA AYERS

My Grandmother Lela, with her daughters Ruth, Doris, & Christine 1947

2014 T.P. WEAVER FAMILY REUNION

DE LEON CEMETARY TOUR

LELA BELLE WEAVER AYERS     ©

December 14, 1884 – 1953

Tribute by John Mack Weaver

Our voices linger in this place known as De Leon as memory recalls each face of our family. The old home still remains.

My Aunt is gone but it seems to me, as vivid as life, I can still see Lela standing there wiping her hands while she stood facing the sun with a wisp of hair blowing in the soft summer air.

On summer days with our doors open the smell of baking bread alerted the entire neighborhood that it was Friday and time for baking. 

Baking was an all day job and Lela was not one for idle time as she busied herself with her oven, showing her love of good things to eat. I can still taste her home made bread and she would say “You will be a big boy yet.” Her way of saying that she loved me.

How I have wished as I grew older that I had put my arms around her shoulder and told her how much she meant to me.

No matter how far I go, or where, I can remember that “manna” from Lela’s oven.

These memories are always there.