One big family

By Tabitha Goodling
For The Daily Item

May 11, 2008 01:03 am

— BURNHAM -- Margaret Richard is like the little woman who lived in a shoe, her children joke.
"She had so many children she didn't know what to do!" says her son, James Richard, of Troxelville, Snyder County.
Margaret, 91, is celebrating Mother's Day today on the heels of her 25th five-generation photo. The resident of Burnham, Mifflin County, lived in Snyder County most of her life, where she raised seven children, which resulted in 29 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren and 25 great-great grandchildren.
Margaret recently spent an evening with five of her children, a granddaughter, great-grandson and great-great grandson. The family did what it does best: eat, laugh, reminisce and playfully argue.
The night's topic is how many grandchildren -- great and great-great -- that grandma truly possesses.
Brothers and sisters poke at one another, point out errors in calculations and laugh at the thought that their dear mother had been the bearer of such a large family.
Margaret Myers married the James Richard on Oct. 1, 1932.
Never did the couple imagine it would create such a large lineage.
"I really did want them," she says of her seven children.
Though some days, "not necessarily," she adds with a chuckle.
As the grandchildren came, time seemed to pass quickly as the grandchildren had children. Before long, the great-grandchildren were becoming parents.
"The more that came, I didn't know what to do with them!" she says, chuckling again.
Her son, Martin Richard, pipes in.
"Ask her which one she loves best."
All five children sitting around the table raise their hands and break into laughter.
Once the teasing and giggles subside, the children speak tenderly of a mother who put every child and grandchild before herself.
Barbara Woodling, the eldest, recalls her mother's eagerness to care for them when they faced illness as children.
"When we were sick she carried meals to our rooms," Woodling says. "We didn't have to go to the table."
Woodling says she did the same thing for her own children when they were sick.
"My in-laws didn't understand why I did that, but that's what mom did," Woodling said. "My children do that for their children, too."
Christina Kephart, the sixth child, says: "We may have been poor but we had a lot of love."
"And food!" cries granddaughter Sonya Zimmerman from her kitchen as her uncles request more sticky buns.
The family mentions it was not unusual for as many as 40 uninvited guests to visit their home for Sunday dinner.
James Richard, the first of Margaret's three sons, turns serious and speaks lovingly of his mother.
"She had an unselfish concern for her children," he said. "Her life was her children."
Besides Barbara, James, Martin and Christina, Margaret's children are also Shirley Fisher, Benjamin Richard and Naomi Renninger.
Margaret still enjoys holding and cuddling babies -- after all, she has snuggled 110 of them in her family.
Many of her descendants gather with grandma each July for the family reunion and again in December for Christmas.
The most recent addition was Jacob Sellers. She posed with daughter Shirley Fisher, grandson John Zeigler and great-granddaughter Katie Sellers to create that 25th family milestone.
"I wouldn't let go of Jacob," she says fondly.
Christina, who now cares for Margaret in her Burnham home, watches her aging mother speak of her grandchildren and says, "She is very thankful God has allowed her to live to see all of them."

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