I interviewed my Grandmother!

Profile of My Grandmother
By Keshia Smith
Oct 17, 2011

Life Lessons

On March 18th 1941 a baby girl name Rosalyn was born in a house in Indianapolis. Rosalyn would be the second to the oldest of four children. She grew up in a house on Cornell Street where she lived with her mother, Agusta Jackson, father, Andrew Dorcy Jackson, and siblings. Her father worked as a truck driver.

“We lived in a big old house on the corner, but it was a double house where people live together. Our house was on the bottom floor and another family lived upstairs.” Rosalyn explained.

Growing up, Rosalyn was close to her older sister Pat because they were around the same age. When Rosalyn was about five or six, The family moved to a house on a street called Manlove that her father was having built for the family. Rosalyn says she remembers having a happy childhood.

“I was young but I liked it back then. I think people were friendlier back then than now. Now you can speak to people and they don’t want to speak to you, the atmosphere is different. Back then, waking down the street, people would say hi, and you can do that now and some people will look at you and keep on going as if they don’t hear you speaking to them. Now days there more shooting, killing and we didn’t have all that back in my day. ” Rosalyn explained.

Rosalyn remembers spending a lot of time at school and over her grandmothers house growing up. For fun, she remembers going to the movies with her sister Pat and, when they got a little older, to Friday night dances at Douglass park.

Rosalyn was ten years old when she first left Indianapolis. She traveled with Pat on a train to visit her Grandmother in Milwaukee.

“That was my first time ever going anywhere out of town. I really enjoyed the train. Looking out the window when you ride by you could see cows and horses.” Rosalyn said.

Rosalyn and Pat had a good time in Milwaukee, She remembered seeing an ice skating show that featured characters from Alice and Wonderland.

As teenagers, Rosalyn and Pat went to Chrispus Attics High School, but both never finished high school.

“My mother got sick and a lot of other things were going on at the time. But I can’t put that all on my mother because I quit school because I quit school. I got a little bored at school and my sister Pat had quit school before me. I guess I saw that she had quit school and I quit school. Now, looking back, I wish I had finished school.”

After quieting school, they did things to help their mother around the house. Rosalyn said she babysat kids around the neighbored, ironed and washed neighbors clothes to make extra money. For fun, they would go the movies and to dances at Douglass Park. One Friday, Rosalyn didn’t feel like going to the dance with her sister.

“She tried to get me to go with her but I stayed home and she went alone by herself. She came back and told me she had met this nice boy Leroy and said he was going to come over this Sunday to see her. So he came over, range the doorbell, and we let him in. Then the next time he came back he had his friend, Kenneth, with him.” Rosalyn said.

Pat started dating Leroy while Rosalyn started dating his friend Kenneth. Soon, both sisters were married.

The beginning of Rosalyn’s marriage was full of good memories, including the birth of her children. But soon, their were difficulties in the marriage. After finding out her husband wasn’t being loyal to the marriage, she eventually divorced him and moved back in with her mother.

“He kept on doing the same thing, so I left him. I got tired of it and moved out and moved back in with my mother, until I finally got my own little place.” Rosland said.

Looking back, Rosalyn said she learned a lot from this difficult situation.

“I had a hard time trying to raise my kids and my marriage didn’t work out the way I wanted, which was difficult.” She said, “I was running different places trying to make sure my kids had food and clothes. I had to do everything on my own, but I learned that sometimes you have to keep on living. You can’t stop your life because someone has mistreated you. You still need to keep trying to live your life no matter what. You have to have trust in yourself.”

Rosalyn says that her faith was one of the main things that helped her get through difficult situations.

“When my mother died, it was like something just came over me. I just put my trust in the Lord and got closer to him. I started to go to church and do things like that. I made sure I got my kids in church. We all got baptized together.”

She said that now, as a 70-year-old woman, she has plenty of things in her life that make her happy.

“I just feel happy now. I don’t worry about things like I use to worry about them.”

She has many things in life that are important to her. She says that the things that are most important to her is her family members and God.

“I don’t really go anywhere now. Every now and then I go to a movie. I watch TV and things like that. I don’t have very many friends, but Janet, she’s my daughter, and we act more like friends. We hang together all the time. We go shopping and to the store.”

Janet Smith says she really admires her mother.

“She’s a kind hearted person who tries to be fair with everybody. She’s so sweet and lovable and you enjoy being around her. She doesn’t down people, she doesn’t get upset over things.” Said Janet.

Rosalyn said she wants to be remembered as someone dependable.

“I just want to treat people the way I would want them to treat me, and I want to be known as somebody you can trust.” she said.



Me and my beautiful Grandmother!


Rosalyn and family when she was younger.