“There lies your mother, my dear girl.”

Fivepointville, Lancaster County, PA.

Lydia Hurst Good, March 9, 1891- March 2, 1919

My mother was 3 years old when her mother, Lydia died from the 1918 flu.  Her husband, my grandfather, was Howard Z. Good. They operated a mill and farm there. To my knowledge the mill is still operating and still called Good’s Mill. They supply animal feed mostly to Amish and old order Mennonites in the area. They too were practicing Mennonites- Grandpa later became the pastor of the Bowmansville church. He was not yet the pastor in the photo as he is wearing a “worldly” suit instead of the plain garb that would have been required. 

Lydia was pregnant with her 5th child who also died.
My mother has few clear memories of her mother, but a very clear memory of the funeral held at Bowmansville Mennonite church in rural Lancaster Co., PA.
Her uncle Joe held her up at the gravesite and in an unflinching look at death, told her, “ There lies your mother, my dear girl”.
After the funeral my great grandparents moved into the “daudy haus”, an addition that was often built to farmhouses for grandparents. They helped to raise my mother and her 3 brothers, who ranged from 6 to 1.5 years old.

Contributed by Lynn Heller, Grandson of Lydia Hurst Good.