2023 Scholarship Winner
Alaina Grey (51371.11.251)
Alaina's essay
Kathleen Alice Sperbeck McIntyre (JMA#51371.11) spent nine years in a hospital. She was born November 4, 1920, and welcomed as the eleventh child out of thirteen. Her mother left them sometime at a young age, and her father died from tuberculosis when she was only four. The children were tested for tuberculosis after their father contracted it, and Kathleen tested positive. She was taken to the hospital at age four with the clothes on her back, and only two personal possessions, a doll and a wind-up toy, which she tucked into a tin box that the hospital gave her to keep her personal items in. Our family still has the box and items from her hospital stay. While the rest of the world lived on and went through the Great Depression, she was there in that hospital room, as if time had frozen; the days turned to weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. She left the hospital when she was thirteen and was never able to experience a childhood. Instead, she picked up life as a teenager and graduated from Richmondville High School.
She married a man named Fred McIntyre, and together they had Bonnie (my grandmother) and my great uncle Fred Jr. They loved their two kids dearly. Kathleen worked in a glove factory, and Fred worked at the cement factory and was a farmer and a bus driver. She loved sewing, and made doll house furniture, which she would sell at craft shows. Kathleen and Fred also planted Christmas trees to sell to help fund my Aunt Teresa and Uncle Eric’s college tuition.
Life during the Great Depression was hard, and with her parents out of the picture, and living in a hospital for nine years, it is difficult to comprehend the amount of pain and sorrow she went through. Fending for yourself, working in tough circumstances, and losing most of your childhood and adulthood to the physical crippling that tuberculosis caused is something that I am thankful I never had to go through. From everything I have heard, she was a strong, independent woman because of those challenges. I would have loved to meet her. Above all, regardless of her hard upbringing, she was joyful in every story and memory I have heard about her.
Born in 2005, I grew up in a home with a mother and a father and three crazy younger siblings, my sister Kathleen (named after my great-grandmother) and my brothers, Isaac, and Eric. I attend a private Christian school; and I am finishing my last weeks there before the next big step. I am going to Liberty University to become a mechanical engineer, then get a job that I am passionate about, and hopefully, someday, start my own family. My grandfather also insisted that I include that I am graduating as Salutatorian with the third highest GPA in my school in over ten years. I have earned an Advanced Placement Diploma requiring 29 credits, seven more credits than required to graduate, including Advanced Math, Physics, Spanish II and Hebrew.
I have been to three JMA reunions. The first was when I was very young, I don’t remember it very much. The second one was in 2015, and I remember a few vivid moments. One of them was my sister and I playing “The Cup Song,” with Jenn B. in the talent show. It was so much fun, and we giggled all the way through it. Then there is the 2022 reunion, which gave me a better understanding of the purpose of the More Reunion. Participating in the parade, the Scottish games, the hike, and hearing the stories of our ancestors from various family members gave me so much gratitude toward those who have kept all of these memories alive. It also gives me a sense of pride in our heritage. I love knowing where we all came from, and the intricate ways that we are all connected. I hope to go back someday with my kids and continue on with the tradition, as well as show them all of the things that I came to love about it.
Kathleen McIntyre’s story, as well as the JMA reunion, has influenced me and changed my perspective on life. Sadly, my great-grandmother never made it to a JMA reunion, though she always wanted to. She was a consistent supporter of the JMA, she collected all of the genealogical information for her family and extended family and submitted it, and maintained it with the JMA. She valued the JMA so much that year after year she would sign her kids up for the newsletter and pay their dues for them. Her dedication inspired me and the importance of family has never been more transparent to me than after the reunion last year. Learning about my great-grandmother, and her love and ties to the JMA has made it that much closer to my heart. I have gotten to know her through my family’s stories and memories. It has been so special, knowing where I came from, and having such an awesome foundation laid out by my ancestors is something many people do not have the joy of sharing. It is a rare privilege and blessing to be part of the John More family.