HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR PATTY

Hey...today is PATTY BARTLETT'S 214 BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She always remembed her birthday. In her journal entries she always would say "Today is my birthday" on February 4th. She lived just short of being 100, although she was almost completely blind by then. She was still productive. At 92 years of age she is quoted as saying "...I cannot sew any scarcely, but I can knit and make rugs." She was an amazing woman. She drove herself across the plains in a wagon, often eating peach pie for dinner and sleeping on wet blankets because of the rain.
She came to the Salt Lake Valley to become a substantial citizen and midwife to hundreds of birthing women.

In our family she was always known as Patty Bartlett. Her married name is Patty Sessions and she was lovingly known as Mother Sessions in her Mormon community. We never thought of her as someone "famous"....she was a midwife and we thought that was really cool. And she was Perrigrine Sessions' mother. That's about all we knew about her up until about 10 years ago. At the time, Papabear brought home a surprise one day. He had been in Deseret Book store and found a book titled [Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions by Donna Toland Smart] What an amazing surprise!!!
Ms Toland has taken Patty's diaries and edited them and published them into a book about our Great,great,great,++Grandmother!! How awesome is that! Her humble beginnings in our hearts has been nurtured into full-blown respect and love, with a wonderful learning of who she is and how she felt about so many adventures in her life. I've given each of my bearcubs a copy of this book. But it wasn't in print long so you must take very good care of it. It's a big part of your family history and who you are. Happy Birthday, Patty. We love you!