Tag Archives: Martha’s Vineyard

…. or, how MV came to be in our lives.

(my mother — my grandmother)

This post is about my mother and my grandmother, the two women who are responsible for our connection to the Vineyard.

My grandmother, Albra Mae Flewellyn Littlefield Grant Baird, was born in Maine.  She was widowed twice, her third husband, Arthur Baird Sr was an Islander who was left to raise two sons, Floyd and Arthur Jr, and a daughter, Hattie, after his first wife died.  My grandmother and my mother Maude came to live on Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs  and thus began our connection and love of the Vineyard.

I don’t know a lot about my grandmother’s life after moving to the Vineyard except that she was busy raising four rambunctuous children, keeping house for her husband and being active in community projects with her friends.  She died before my parents were married so I never knew her but I  feel a closeness to her whenever I’m on the Vineyard.  She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Oak Bluffs.

My mother, Maude Louise Littlefield Freeman was born in Waterville, Maine on March 11, 1907.

the picture below is one of my most favorite pictures of all time…

Raised on Martha’s Vineyard

my mother and grandmother – Oak Bluffs 1924

Moved to New Jersey after graduating from Oak Bluffs High School. She met and married a Jersey boy… Joseph Albert Freeman

and had a Jersey girl (me)…

The next to the last Mother’s Day I spent with my mom was May 1975. My parents were vacationing on the Cape and she was unaware that we were driving up to surprise her for the weekend. I gave her the book ‘Mostly On Martha’s Vineyard, A Personal Record’ by Henry Beetle Hough, as I knew she’d know some of the people mentioned in the book. I am so glad I did that because after reading the book she decided she wanted to sail over to the Vineyard to visit her mother’s grave. It turned out be her last trip to her beloved Vineyard.