A beautiful snapshot of six generations of ladies from the same family has just gone viral, capturing a large audience.
MaeDell Taylor Hawkins, 99, is cuddling her seven-month-old great-great-great-granddaughter, Zhavia Whitaker. Other extraordinary women surround them, including MaeDell’s daughter Frances Snow, aged 77, granddaughter Gracie Snow Howell, great-granddaughter Jacqueline Ledford, 29, and great-great-granddaughter Jaisline Wilson, 19.
MaeDell’s daughters and successive generations have produced nearly 620 grandkids.
MaeDell’s 58-year-old granddaughter, Howell, said, “I know it’s odd for six generations… it’s more rarer for them all to be the same gender. We’re all females, and we have girl strength as well.”
When they shot the picture and uploaded it on social media, they had no idea how much attention it would garner. “We just kind of planned a day, and we all met, and grandma knew we were coming,” Howell, who now lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, said.
MaeDell married in 1940, at the age of sixteen. Her husband, Bill Taylor, a 50-year-old train worker with ten children, needed someone to look after them while he worked. MaeDell took on the role of mother and ultimately had thirteen children of her own.
The family led a modest life, lacking basic amenities like electricity, running water, and a stove, among others. Marrying at a young age was a common practice during that era. Reflecting on it, Howell commented, “Now we don’t. We have children later in our life, so families are not that big. Having six generations is very, very rare to start with.”
The Kentucky matriarch now proudly has a remarkable 623 descendants, as per a family chart shared by her daughter-in-law, Janice Taylor. This includes 106 grandchildren, 222 great-grandchildren, 234 great-great-grandchildren, and 37 great-great-great-grandchildren.
“If everything goes well, the baby’s doing well, Grandma’s doing well – we’re all going to meet back in June and get another picture,” the family shared.