Amy Doyle

My great grandmother is named Amy Doyle.  My sister Amy was named after her.  She is someone who is an inspiration to me, though I only know her through the stories my grandmother has written about her.  She didn't live very long, only 36 years.  I am 35 now.  That means I would only live one more year if I were to live to her age.  She must have had a short mission on this earth.  Short and difficult.  She lost her first husband when he went out on a fishing trip and was pinned under a rock.  Nobody found him until he had died.  She was left with a little baby girl named Frankie. She went on to marry my great grandfather, Ferdinand Desoto Graham, and they had my grandmother, Cleo, and her twin sisters, Delia and Dorris. 
I love the way my grandmother describes her.  She was caring, gentle, ambitious. She loved to sew, cook, garden.  I think I would have loved to know her.  She also suffered much.  Living out on a farm was toil enough, but she also suffered from arthritis, "dropsy" or swelling, and a heart condition probably related to the edema.  She would have to go to town  and have her fluids "tapped" to relieve the pressure which my grandma says must have been very painful.
Amy passed away when my Grandma was 11 years old, but her memories of Amy are very vivid.  She gardened, and had beautiful flowers like lilacs, snowballs, tulips and peonies.  She canned fruits and sewed dresses for all her girls- those skills must have passed on from mother to daughter and to grand-daughter for my mother and grandmother also did those things.
Grandma even tells a story of  having to take cod liver oil that was sent home from the school because of her sickly appearance. Amy took compassion on her daughter and threw the bottle of mint-flavored fish oil out.
I also remember my mother telling me that Cleo, her mother, would often sing "Rock of Ages" because it was something Amy would sing.  I too enjoy that song, and find great comfort and strength in the words. 
I am not sure why I needed to write this, but I have had it on my mind.  I feel a closeness to my ancestors when I think about them and read about them.  I want to know them better, and know what life was like for them.