Memorial Day is (as close as needs be to being) my anniversary with WW. One year ago this week I heard about how to fill your plate half full with fruits and vegetables for this weekend’s holiday picnics. I thought that was brilliant. It had never occurred to me to do that. Weight Watchers rose in my novice estimation. I did not yet have a proper appreciation for the point count of mayonnaise (hence, potato or macaroni salad) or baked beans so I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be needing room for them anyway if I planned to eat anything fun for the rest of the week. When I quit smoking I was super-super-vigilant for the first year. I thought about not smoking every day. For the second year I was just super-vigilant. I was a little safer, a little more secure in my status as a non-smoker. I plan to lose the same in my second WW year that I lost in the first. My skill bag is much larger, my one point per serving recipes right up my sleeve, I can estimate a quarter cup quite satisfactorily but I measure most everything I eat anyway, and I know (intellectually) how to build a satisfying meal that will stay with me. I understand the concept of macronutrients. I can skitter away from the program for a few weeks and then come back. I can stay on target even when I’m having a “maintaining not losing” week. But food is funny. I was told that it’s harder to quit smoking than it is to quit heroin. I’m here to tell you that it’s harder to quit poor eating habits than it is to quit smoking. I quit smoking 9 years ago but I’ve been struggling with my weight since I was a child and I don’t feel the slight relief that came with my first anniversary as a non-smoker. I don’t feel like I can lighten up a little and some of this will take care of itself. This is my first serious attempt at having a healthy diet. I’m 37. Tomorrow I’m off to visit my great-great grandfather’s grave at Mount Hope Cemetery. More about that later. Posted in All About ME
Francis B. Egan (1846-1916)
Today, Memorial Day, I went to find a family headstone at Mt. Hope Cemetery here in Lansing. I had no idea that I had family buried in Lansing until a distant relative told me so. The grave I was looking for was “Grandma’s Schryer’s father” in my current family lexicon – that’s Francis Bartholomew Egan, 1846-1916. He had a son and grandson named after him and the name Francis continues as a middle name into the current generation of my family.
Francis Egan was born on 13 Oct 1846 in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. He apprenticed in the printing business in Canada and then settled in Detroit. According to the Early history of Michigan, with biographies of state officers, members of Congress, judges and legislators; published pursuant to Act 59, 1887 he was “an active worker in labor organizations, and held prominent positions in that connection. He was deputy commissioner of labor in 1885-6, and is now [1887] Deputy Secretary of State. In politics, a Republican.”
He married his wife Emeline Wright in Montreal and they had four children: Francis (born 1874), Ida (1879-1888), Elizabeth (1880-1888) and Emeline, my ancestor.
In 1888, while the family was living in Lansing, Emeline’s two sisters, aged about 8 and 9, died of a fever within a few weeks of one another. They were buried beside one another at Mt. Hope Cemetery. When their father died 28 years later he was buried alongside them. We saw Ida and Elizabeth’s graves there as well. Their headstones are wearing quite a bit but Francis Egan’s is very clear.
For any other family looking for him, they’re in section B near the cross section of sections R, N, M and B approximately 50 feet and 15 rows in between the Brodegan and French family markers.
