Carlotta Mary Smith Taylor was born in Bangor, Maine on November 29th, 1928. She was the third of six children born to Ernest and Josephine Smith. She lived in Maine until she was sixteen when she moved to Silver Spring, MD. She met Calvin Edward Taylor in November of 1946 after he saw a photo of Carlotta that her sister, Eleanor, had at work. He knew he wanted to meet her so her sister arranged for the meeting. After a brief courtship they married on March 4th, 1947 in a Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD.
Carlotta and Cal set up their home first in Northwest Washington DC and then in a development called Lily Ponds in Silver Spring, MD. Their first son, David, was born December 4th, 1947, followed by Stephen on October 7th, 1948 and then Michael on October 17th, 1956.While the boys were growing up Carlotta stayed home to raise them while Cal ran his printing company in Washington, DC. They moved from their home in Lily Ponds to Silver Spring in 1949 followed by Chillum Heights in Hyattsville for three years and then moved to South Lawn in Oxen Hill in 1952. As a family they ate fish every Friday and Pork Chops and Spaghetti on Monday's.
Carlotta loved reading books, taking walks, and baking cookies, donuts, cakes and the best pies. Because she grew up in Maine, Carlotta was always a fan of figure skating. As a young girl she enjoyed skating herself and as an adult watched all the competitions on TV. She also loved babies and kids. She was happiest when she could care for others. Once she became a grandmother in 1972 she greatly enjoyed spending time with her grandkids.. And after having three boys of her own she became a grandmother to three grandsons! Paul, Stephen and Jeff were born to her son Stephen. When her son David and his wife Mary gave birth to her first granddaughter, Ilene, Carlotta was thrilled. Ilene was joined by her sister, Katie, Carlotta's youngest granchild in 1981.
Her grandkids called her Grandma which she never cared for. Then during a trip to McDonalds with her neighbor, Peg, and her grandsons, Paul, Stephen and Jeff, the nickname Ma was born. At the time Jeff only said the ends of words so in an effort to get her attention yelled out Ma!! From that point on she became known only as Ma to her family.
In 2000 Cal and Carlotta moved to their final home in Edgewater, MD. This home became the place that the entire family gathered for all the holidays. By that time she had 11 Great Grandkids - Chelsea, Rebekah, Paul, Zachary, Shawn, Michael, Kailani, Mara, Lucy, David, Reid.
Naming Ma
I do not remember this story first hand since I was only one year old but I remember it as it's been told to me. Ma had been called Grandma until one unforeseen incident during a trip to McDonalds where I did not receive my french fries. As I was told when I was first learning to speak I was only saying the end of words. My grandmother along with her neighbor, Peg, took myself and my brothers and several of Peg's day care kids to McDonalds for lunch.
I much enjoyed french fries and being the smallest of the group was greatly overlooked and my order of fries was not forthcoming. With near starvation looming, my survival instincts kicked in and in an attempt to wrestle attention away from all the other kids I yelled for my most beloved grandmother, "MA! Fries!"
Along with the arrival of my fries, so came Ma's new name.
I can remember many things about Ma but one of the things I remember most is the time my Uncle Mike and his buddies built a brick shed in Ma and Pop Pop’s back yard. Ma always told us she had eyes in the back of her head and could see everything that we do.
I remember as a kid Ma would do her hair at the kitchen table, one of the only times you would see a beer in front of her for her hair. But I would always look for the eyes in the back of her head.
I never saw them but one day in the backyard my brothers and I had the idea to build a fort with the bricks that Uncle Mike was using. We cleaned up before Ma got home and yet I still got in trouble!
She knew what we did and how I never understood but it always seemed Ma knew what we were up to, sometimes even before we did. Funny to say I miss that. I love and miss you more than I could ever express.
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