This video is a real treasure. It comes from Bill Callahan, who descends from John Alfred Sears (1860-1951). John Alfred Sears was the adoptive father of my great grandfather, Arthur Bryan Myers/Sears (1900-1964). The post I wrote a few years ago about John Sears has some factual errors that Bill has alerted me to (e.g., John likely only had four wives, was probably born in 1861 vs. 1860, and had a slightly different origin story) that I will correct or amend in the post in the future.

The video shows Bill’s father, James Patrick Callahan (1920-1998), reflecting on “Clary” who was Arthur’s biological mother, Clara Rachel (Miles) (Myers) Sears (1875-1934). Clara is my 2nd great grandmother.

James Patrick Callahan (1920-1998), reflecting on “Clary”.

“Mom didn’t want me to call Clary grandma for some reason. Well, she liked Clary but she didn’t, she thought the world of her mother and that was my grandma. And she was dead. So, I did, I called her Clary and I was probably her favorite I think. Because, every time we would go down there, mom and grandpa, and a bunch of them would go see somebody, you know. And, I would stay with Clary all the time and I was four or five years old. And she said ‘Oh you just go ahead, Jimmy will stay here. Jimmy Pat will stay here with me.’ She was hard of hearing. But boy, I’ll tell you, her heart was … as big as a mountain.”

Here are Bill’s comments on the video:

“I have this video file of my dad talking about ‘Clary’ as he called her. John Sears' first wife, Isabel Beck (Sears) died before dad was born. Clara, John's second wife, was the only grandmother my dad knew. I can remember chatting with him many times about John and a little bit about Clary. What is clear and I think it comes out on the video is that dad loved Clary. The video was taken about 1994. You can perhaps see that 60 years after her passing, he still missed her.”

In discussing the transcription of the video Bill added:

Sitting in the room with him while I was shooting this video, I could have sworn that what he said was "her heart was [long pause] as big as a mountain." I certainly can't hear "was" in the video. If you listen carefully, you might hear the first half of a "w" but that's it. At the time (and still today, 30 years later) I thought he was suppressing tears. Perhaps he meant to say "was" but left it unsaid as he struggled to regain his composure.
As much as it says about Clary, the video says more about dad.

This is the only first hand account I have ever heard about my 2nd great grandmother.

I had not really followed the Sears bloodline, because it wasn’t “ours”. No one, biologically, in my family tree was a Sears even though the name persisted. This goes to show though that “family” can be defined in many inclusive ways beyond blood. I am thankful to Bill for sharing this video with me as it adds valuable context to the stories of both our families. Here are a few photos of Clara with the Sears family and a few of her alone.