Sunday, October 29, 2017

My Great-grandpa Hedrick

Todays blog post is about something very special to me. I'm writing about one of my ancestors on my mother's side of the family. Growing up spending a lot of time around my mom and grandma, I heard countless stories about my great-grandpa Hedrick. In this post I will be sharing some things I learned and found interesting about my great-grandpa. I hope to stress that he was a great and caring father and husband.

His full name was Veril Clifford Hedrick, born May 14th in 1901. Died Dec. 3rd, 1991 at age 90 1/2. Was proud of that 1/2. 




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He owned and operated an appliance store called "Hedrick Electric" for 70 years and was still working everyday there when he died of a bad cold. He was a good and honest man. During the 1929 depression when many people lost their jobs and couldn't pay their bills, he never reposed a refrigerator, stove etc. because he knew these people had families to take care of. He also gave money out of his own pocket for those who needed a meal. Sometimes he would go with them if they had a whole family to feed, to a restaurant that was right next door to his business. He married my great-grandma, Violet Helen (Loy) Hedrick who was from Sweden. He was of German descent with a little English in there too. He and great-grandma had four children. My grandma was the "baby of the family ". They all lived in Rockford, IL. That is also where my mother was born. Grandpa Veril was very loving and caring for his family. He cared deeply for his grandchildren, too. Through the years, he employed at different times his own father, his children, his nieces, eleven grandchildren everybody loved to go down to "grandpa's store. " He had the mind of an engineer but was poor and couldn't afford to go to college. He became a very wealthy man but never flaunted it! He was a very devote person in a quiet way. 

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