The Old Rocking Chair

The Barrett family had owned three of the largest plantations in Georgia before the Civil War. Near the end of the war, they had to flee their homes. They settled in Massachusetts, eventually owning vast textile mills. Liz, the daughter of Kathleen and Isaac Barrett, was born in Massachusetts in eighteen eighty. Her father died when she was very young and her mother married his younger brother, Harley, when Liz was ten. She always knew of her mother's love for Georgia and they visited the homeland, to find only one dilapidated plantation house left standing. When she was sixteen, she lost her mother who was buried in the old family cemetery in Jenz Bridge, Georgia. Liz was left with a stepfather who turned to alcohol and after two years of indecision and grieving, she went to Georgia to begin restoration of the house. There she married and had a son. It was a perfect marriage until a secret was uncovered that nearly destroyed her marriage and her life. Through an accident, her life was restored. Now, Liz sits and happily looks upon her loved ones and remembers how close she came to loosing all this forever.