The Storyteller of Our Family - Part 3: A Life of Faith, Family, and Service

 

By the mid-1939s, Chloe Belle Hodge had accomplished something few would have though possible.  

She had overcome financial hardship, earned her stenotype certificate, and begun building a career that would help support her family. The determined young woman who refused to accept "no" for an answer had already proven what she was capable of. Yet the chapters that followed would shape the rest of her life in ways she could never have imagined. 

A New Faith 

One evening, neighbors invited the Hodge family to hear missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their neighbors were originally from Rocky Mount and were fairly new to the area. The Mormon religion had not yet been introduced to Raleigh. Chloe admitted in her autobiography that she attended reluctantly. Her parents had enjoyed the first meeting and encouraged her to give them a chance, but she remained skeptical.  

It didn't take long for her heart to change. 

Soon the entire Hodge family joined the Church.  

Meetings were held in members' homes as the small congregation slowly grew.  From those humble beginnings, the Hodge family helped establish the first branch of the Church in Raleigh, planting seeds that would continue to grow for generations. 

Faith would become the foundation upon which Chloe built the rest of her life. 

Called to Hawaii

In February 1949, Chloe received an opportunity that few young women from rural Wake County could have imagined. 

She was called to serve as a missionary in Hawaii. 

After reporting to Salt Lake City for three weeks of training, she boarded another train bound for San Francisco. There she stepped aboard the luxury liner Lurline and sailed across the Pacific Ocean.  

Four days later, she arrived in Honolulu. 

For a woman who had spent most of her life along the roads east of Raleigh, Hawaii must have felt like another world. 

A couple months went by and as her mission drew to a close, she was offered an incredible opportunity. She could remain in Hawaii with a position paying $5,000 a month along with room and board! A shocking amount of money for 1949 and very tempting.  Chloe wanted to stay and the money she would earn would be life changing, but after much prayer she decided it was time to go home. At the time she couldn't understand why she felt so strongly that she needed to leave.

She soon would. 

1920s Gospel Hymnal

An antique copy of Victory Songs No.4, an early 1920s gospel hymnal compiled by evangelist Victoria Booth-Clibborn.

1909 L.D.S. Hymnal

Deseret Sunday School Songs -- Published by the Deseret Sunday School Union in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1905 Educational Booklet

An authentic 1905 first-edition copy of Amy Jane Maguire's The Indian Girl Whol Led Them (Sacajawea), published by the J.K. Gill Company in Portland, Oregon. An unknown name written across the fragile, weathered cover.

Hawaiian Hymnal

Na Mele O Ziona-- L.D.S. Hawaiian Mission Published in 1924

Hawaiian Hymnal

Na Mele O ZionaSacramental Hynm In Hawaiian

Hawaiian Hymnal

Na Mele O ZionaA Happy Band of Children in Hawaiian

English-Hawaiian Vocabulary

Introduction To The Hawaiian Languagecompiled by Henry P. Judd, Mary Kawena Pukui, John F.G. Stokes. Note Aunt Chloe's name writen in the top right corner. Published in 1945 and cost just $2.00!

1914 Hawaiian-language edition of the LDS scripture Doctrine and Covenants

Na Berita a me na Kauoha o ka Ekalesia o lesu, Kristo o ka Poe Hoano o na La Hope NeiThis book was produced during a period of active missionary work for Hawaiian speaking members in the then Territory of Hawaii.

1914 Hawaiian language edition of the LDS scripture Doctrine and Covenants

Title page of the Na Berita A Me Na Kauohaa book Aunt Chloe used throughout her 1948 mission to Hawaii.

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A Unimaginable Loss

Only months after returning to North Carolina, Chloe purchased her first brand-new automobile. 

She was understandably proud of it. Although it did cause some of their neighbors to gossip. To them the brand new car was proof she was paid to go on her mission, but she was never paid a penny. 

That evening, her mother, Vallie, stepped outside to check the mailbox. Chloe always believed her mother simply wanted an excuse to admire the new car sitting in the yard. 

As Vallie turned to cross the road back to their home, she was struck by an automobile. 

She did not survive. 

The loss devastated the Hodge family. 

The following morning, the young driver who had struck her came to the Hodge home with his parents. Overcome with grief. he apologized through tears. 

Instead of anger, Chloe embraced him. 

The two cried together as she assured him that the family forgave him. 

That moment speaks volumes about the kind of woman Chloe had become. 

A Career of Service

Just one week after losing her mother, Chloe accepted a position with the North Carolina State Medical Society, 

Over the years, she became much more than a secretary. She reported medical conferences for physicians across North Carolina, recording presentations in orthopedic medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, oncology, ENT, and many other specialties. She also reported Executive Committee meetings and the House of Delegates sessions where important decisions affecting the organization were made. 

It was meaningful work, and she devoted herself to it for many years. 

Finding Joy in the Journey

Life wasn't all work. 

During the 1940s, Chloe attended Raleigh's elegant Gold and Green Ball, one of the city's premier social events. 

A decade later, she and several girlfriends traveled to New York City. Reading her account of the trip, it's easy to picture a group of county girls standing in awe among towering buildings, busy streets, and the endless excitement of Americas largest city.

Even after retirement, Chloe rarely slowed down. She loved crocheting and embroidery. Family members and church friends always looked forward to receiving Aunt Chloe's handmade crocheted blankets when they got married or had a baby. 

In 1999, when the Raleigh North Carolina Temple was completed, Chloe was asked to crochet alter cloths for the new temple's five altars. Even though I was young at the time, I can remember her be so excited for this opportunity.  I still remember attending the temple's open house and seeing her work beautifully displayed.

 The Aunt I Remember   

Although Chloe never married or had children, she never lacked a family to love. 

She lived with her sister, Flonnie, my great-grandmother, for most of her adult life. Ash the years passed and walking became more difficult; my grandmother lovingly became her primary caregiver. 

Growing up, Sunday afternoons often ended with visits to their house in Cary. Every Sunday when we walked in the door Aunt Chloe would be crocheting while Memaw watched the NASCAR race drinking coffee from her Bill Elliot coffee mug. 

The walls of their home were covered with framed embroidery she had stitched by hand. Today several of those pieces hang in my own home as well as my mothers. 

When I was young, she patiently tried to teach me how to crochet. Let's just say my greatest accomplishment was finishing a single potholder.  

Years later, before I left for East Carolina University, I asked if she would make me a purple and gold blanket for my apartment. 

She did and even made a matching pillow. I still have them today.

What's always amazed me is that both my daughter and my youngest son would only sleep with crocheted blankets starting when they were little and even now. They had other blankets to choose from, but time and again, the crocheted ones became their favorites; 

Today, my daughter has claimed my ECU blanket as her own. Seeing her wrapped in a blanket that Aunt Chloe lovingly made all those years ago feels like a beautiful full-circle moment. Without ever realizing it, my children developed a love for the very kind of blanket Aunt Chloe spend a lifetime making for the people she loved

It reminds me that the things we create for our families often outlive us. A simple crocheted blanket became more than yarn stitched together by hand, It became a thread connecting generations, carrying Aunt Chloe's love from her hands, to mine, and now to my children's

 

Losing Her Best Friend

On May 5, 2002, Chloe experienced one of the greatest heartbreaks of her life. 

It was a Sunday afternoon. Aunt Chloe crocheting and Memaw watching the NASCAR race when Memaw suddenly became very ill. She didn't want to go to the hospital, but Aunt Chloe insisted. 

Before the paramedics wheeled Memaw out the door , she turned toward her sister and quietly said;

"I hate to leave you by yourself."

"I love you."

"Goodbye. I'll see you on the other side of the veil."

Those were the last words they ever spoke.

An hour later, my father called to tell Aunt Chloe that her lifelong best friend and sister had passed away.

Aunt Chloe spent the following day planning the funeral. That night, unable to sleep, Chloe began having severe chest pains.

She was suffering a heart attack. 

Aunt Chloe was set to have surgery the day of Memaw's funeral to have a cardiac stent placed. Her surgery was scheduled to begin a couple of hours before the funeral was to start. In one of life's remarkable twits, Aunt Chloe rolled into the operating room at the exact moment the funeral began. She wrote in her book about that moment; remembering the doctor placing a mask over her mouth and nose as a single tear rolled down her check. 

While I was fourteen-year-old at this time, until reading Aunt Chloe's autobiography I hadn't remembered any of this happening. Memaw's funeral was video tapped and once Aunt Chloe had recovered she and two friends sat down to watch it. 

Her Last Gift

After Memaw passed away, members of their church volunteered to help care for Aunt Chloe. Church members shared the responsibility of grocery shopping, taking her to appointments, etc. At this point Aunt Chloe could still walk, although not very far and she wasn't able to drive. 

In 2003, Aunt Chloe went with friends from church to eat at a restaurant. While walking into the restaurant the heel of her shoe became stuck in a crack on the sidewalk which resulted her in falling breaking her femur. 

Although she recovered from the surgery, she never returened home. 

She spent the final six years of her life at Rex Rehabilitation Center. Even there, she found a way to serve. 

She became the president of the Residents' Council, speaking on behalf of other residents, and several of her embroidered works were displayed throughout the facility. 

No matter where life placed her, she found a way to make it better for those around her. 

A Voice That Lives On

Most of our ancestors leave us photographs. 

Some leave heirlooms.

A few leave letters.

Aunt Chloe left something even more extraordinary. 

She left her own story, in detail. 

Every time I open her autobiography, I hear her voice again. I laugh at her sense of humor, admire her determination, and better understand the experiences that shaped not only her life but our family's history. 

It is one of the greatest she could have left us. 

I still have several copies of her autobiography and hope to share it here on Rooted In The Harricanes in the future, allowing readers to experience her life in her own words.

As an ametur genealogists, I spend countless hours searching for birth certificates, census records, marriage licenses, and newspaper articles. Those records tell us when our ancestors lived, where they lived, and sometimes what they did. But those records rarely tell us who they were.

The don't tell us what made them laugh, what frightened them, what dreams they chased, or the ordinary moments that became their favorite memories. 

Aunt Chloe gave our family those things because she took the time to write them down. 

If you take one thing away from her story, I hope it's this: write down your own story.

You may think your life is ordinary or that your stories aren't interesting enough to preserve. But one day, years from now, your children, grandchildren, or even a distant descendant may go searching for you, just as many of us search for our own ancestors today. 

What they will want most isn't another census record.

They'll want to hear your voice. 

Tell them about your childhood, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.  Write about your family traditions, your first job, the happiest day of your life, the hardest ones, and the little moments that never made it into any official record.  

One day, those memories may become the greatest gift you leave behind.