PEMBROKE — One-month-old Adalynn Marie Vaught rested peacefully Thursday in the arms of her great-great grandmother, Mary Vivian (Jones) Locklear.
“I thank the Lord I’m here another year,” said Locklear, 87.
It was a special Thanksgiving for the family she started in Pembroke many years ago. This year was the sixth time in family history that five generations of the family has gathered.
Each time, the family takes a photograph of the five generations. On the first meeting of the generations in 1966, The Robesonian published the photo.
“I was just a few weeks old in 1966,” said Sonya Deese Champion. “I guess I’m giving away my age. That was 51 years ago.”
Give or take a few, about 40 of Mary Vivian’s family attended this Thanksgiving. No one has a house large enough to hold the extended family, so they met at the Holiday Inn Express in Pembroke on Thursday.
“In the past, we met at the home church, Mount Olive Pentecostal Holiness, in Pembroke,” Audena Walker said. “Everybody cooks, and the young ones do the most.”
As the room filled with relatives, the smell of food grew nearly irresistible. For the Locklear family, it was a special moment in time, and that’s what Thanksgiving is all about.
