Ellen Peel Alexander lived with her grandson's family for several years before her death in 1929. She was a strong-willed old bird with some very definite ideas. For instance, she believed that it was indecent to get into a bathtub with one's own 'nether' parts and so she squatted on a stool placed in a tub of steaming water with a sheet tied around her neck and draped over the tub.
And once her grandson heard a commotion from her part of the house where she had complained that the door was sticking. He arrived to find that the old lady had taken the door off the hinges and was planing it down.
