My great grandmother, Rebecca Weidess Chandler, was a collector of clocks. She lived from 1907 until 2007. Her side of the family was of British descent. They immigrated to Virginia in the 1700’s to start a new life in the colonies. Their original surname was “Whitehurst” but was later changed to a slang-sounding “Weidess”. I figured that this was a natural change due to family members adopting a southern vernacular, however my grandmother informed me of the real reason. The Whitehurst’s in England still revered King George, while the Whitehurst’s in America wanted to split away from his rule. The name change was a separation from any family that didn’t share the colonist ideologies.

In her one hundred years of life, Rebecca acquired many different types of clocks, whether they were pendulum or “coocoo” clocks. My grandmother (her daughter) tells me that in her childhood house the clocks would sound every hour, and at night you were lucky to sleep through any of the loud, pulsing bell tones. After my great grandmother died, she passed on all of her clocks to my grandmother, who made sure to take care of them to keep them in working condition.

One clock in particular was given to my family to keep in our house. This clock is special, because it was custom made for Rebecca with mahogany wood. There is a string inside that controls the chiming every hour. To make the clock sound every 60 minutes, the string must be pulled down. Otherwise, it will tick silently. My family, who appreciated the history but not the noises, elected to not pull the string down. All of my life I have never heard the clock chime, and who knows if it would even work if we tried to pull it today. Even though I’ve never heard the clock sound, I’ve imagined what it would sound like. The bell inside is fairly large, so I’d imagine that it would have a deep, rich, swinging tone. Noise aside, the clock itself hanging in my parent’s dining room always reminds me of my great grandmother. I can vividly picture her house with clocks in every room, chiming all at the same time…driving some people crazy, but providing a sense of stability and calmness for Rebecca.