DAFFODIL is the prompt for Februllage Day #15. My collage is entitled “A Tribute to Daffodil Sisters: Mary Etter Bolden and Stella Essa Bolden.” It honors my great-great-grandaunts, Mary and Stella Bolden, the daughters of my great-great-great-grandparents, Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden and John Thomas Bolden Sr. and Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden. They were the younger sisters of my great-great-grandfather, William Henry Bolden.
I decided to honor my great-great-grandaunts Mary and Stella because they both died early in life. Mary was born on June 14, 1877, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on April 9, 1898, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 20 years old.
Stella was born on December 14, 1879, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on June 28, 1899, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 19 years old.
While designing this collage, I did some research on the meaning of daffodils and learned they symbolize rebirth, new beginnings, joy, and cheerfulness.
When I looked at Mary and Stella’s black and white photo, I imagined they were young women filled with joy, dreams, and hopes for their future. Perhaps, they were very active in their church community and were able to read and write, teach Sunday school, and help organize outreach efforts and social events. I also imagined they loved flowers like daffodils which were known to grow during the spring months in their hometown of North Vernon, Indiana. Maybe they loved to pick them and place them in vases in their home. My imagination also had me visualizing their parents, sisters, and brothers bringing daffodils to their graves during the spring season.
I wanted to create a heavenly background with daffodils to illustrate Mary and Stella’s rebirth as loving + wise + well ancestors. Thanks to Canva’s AI-generated tool, I was able to create the perfect one.
YOUR INVITATION
Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter.
Do you have any loving + wise + well ancestors who died early in life?
Use your imagination to think about what your ancestors might have lived to be and do.
Ananda Leeke 