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MaeDell Taylor Hawkins and her great-great-great-granddaughter Zhavia WhitakerScreenshot/Facebook

KINGS MOUNTAIN, Kentucky (LifeSiteNews) — A Kentucky woman has met her great-great-great granddaughter for the first time.

MaeDell Taylor Hawkins made headlines after one of her granddaughters posted a picture of the 98-year-old woman holding her newborn great-great-great-granddaughter Zhavia Whitaker in February. She was flanked by female descendants, each the mother of the next. According to Fox News, Hawkins has 106 grandchildren, 222 great-grandchildren, 234 great-great-grandchildren, and 37 great-great-great-grandchildren in total.

“SIX (living) Generations,” wrote Gracie Snow Howell, Hawkins’ granddaughter, in a February 24 Facebook post. It included the now-viral picture of the 98-year-old with daughter Frances Snow, Gracie, great-granddaughter Jacqueline Ledford, great-great-granddaughter Jaisline Wilson, and baby Zhavia.  

 

According to her family, Hawkins married the late Bill Taylor in 1940 when she was only 16. Her husband was a 50-year-old widower with a large family. 

“He already had 10 children,” Howell explained to Fox News Digital. “His wife died having twins at home. He worked on the railroad. He had to get back to work. He needed somebody to take care of the kids.” 

Hawkins’ granddaughter explained that the marriage was not considered strange because “a lot of women married real young then.” 

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“Now we don’t,” she said. “We have children later in our life, so families are not that big.” 

Hawkins took her husband’s children under her wing and gave birth to 13 more.   

“She took care of everybody,” Howell said. “I’ve never heard my mom say anything about hearing her complain.” 

“She would often say, ‘Hard work is what keeps you going.” 

READ:  Overpopulation? Demographic winter will hit America hard in the 2030s 

In the United States, birth rates have been on a steady decline, dropping by 20% over the last 15 years and reaching their lowest point ever in 2021 at 56 births per 1,000 women.  

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