When you lose someone you love you are left with memories and memento's.
One year ago today we lost a light in our life. My Grandmother passed away.
She was no doubt my most loyal blog reader and encouraged me to write at every opportunity.
The weekend we celebrated her life was also the weekend we celebrated the upcoming birth of my daughter.It was truly a full circle weekend.
Before my Grandmother passed away she started reflecting on her life and started writing.
I wish she would have had the opportunity to finish the story but she didn't so we are left cherishing these words from her...
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"Today we went to a funeral honoring Pastor Lou Gabrielson and it occurred to me that I really needed to reflect some memories that happened to me in my lifetime. Thanks to Ester and Gary Sandberg they gifted me with a laptop computer and I have no excuse now not to get busy reflecting and recording information of my background. Get ready this might be quite a trip.
The earliest thing I remember is being sick and my father was asked to go get medicine for my whooping cough... He came home with the prescription and a cute little Mickey Mouse that was black and rubbery... A nice addition. It became apart of my life and was carefully guarded for many years.
MY DAD
Dad was born on November 2, 1907 and died March 2, 1987.
He was special, caring and a sharing kind of fella, who vowed his children would never know the hardships he had being put into an orphanage. That is what he knew as a child. He said he would always go around church where the devil couldn't get him in a corner. He showed this over and over during his lifetime and getting him to lighten up was most difficult. His mother died when he was very young and he remembers her lying on a porch with her eye's covered. Unlike what he was told she was murdered and we found this our from a relative who had newspapers that told the story of what happened. According to Dad his mother was killed by a stray bullet on a street in N. Dakota. Instead she was killed by a man in a home where she was visiting. He shot her, wounded her friend and then killed himself.
Dad was then placed in a Catholic home for children along with his two sisters. When the opportunity came for him to leave he did so. He went to live with a family in N. Dakota and used to boast that when he went to the 8th grade.... He went in one door and out the back door. He then caught a ride on a box car and headed out.
He joined a rodeo and rode bucking horses until a friend of his who rode bulls died in an exhibition. He went to North Platte, Nebraska where he recovered from injuries he received riding horses. There he met my Mom who was a junior in High School.
They were married on August 1,1930. Mom was an outstanding student and when she married, my Grandfather was very angry and did not speak to them for many months.
Mom promised him that she would finish high school and did so many years later going to Fullerton Junior College.
Seeing pictures of my parents are plentiful during their early marriage. Mom shocked the world when she went flying while pregnant. But she did and was disgraced by critics.
I was born on July 13,1931 and that changed a lot of things. Dad who was a free spirit suddenly become responsible for a family and things were never the same.
Dad worked for Nash Finch a grocery supply company and found the depression not too bad. We lived in a house across the alley from Mom's family. Dad's salary was $60.00 per month and that was excellent pay for this time."
"When my Grandmother would have to leave after a visit, I would be devastated She propped me up on her knee and said, "Don't worry, I will leave something and that will mean I will always be back". Sure enough, she did just that and over the years I had collected lots of her hairpins to reflect her visits".
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One year ago today we lost a light in our life. My Grandmother passed away.
She was no doubt my most loyal blog reader and encouraged me to write at every opportunity.
The weekend we celebrated her life was also the weekend we celebrated the upcoming birth of my daughter.It was truly a full circle weekend.
Before my Grandmother passed away she started reflecting on her life and started writing.
I wish she would have had the opportunity to finish the story but she didn't so we are left cherishing these words from her...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The earliest thing I remember is being sick and my father was asked to go get medicine for my whooping cough... He came home with the prescription and a cute little Mickey Mouse that was black and rubbery... A nice addition. It became apart of my life and was carefully guarded for many years.
MY DAD
Dad was born on November 2, 1907 and died March 2, 1987.
He was special, caring and a sharing kind of fella, who vowed his children would never know the hardships he had being put into an orphanage. That is what he knew as a child. He said he would always go around church where the devil couldn't get him in a corner. He showed this over and over during his lifetime and getting him to lighten up was most difficult. His mother died when he was very young and he remembers her lying on a porch with her eye's covered. Unlike what he was told she was murdered and we found this our from a relative who had newspapers that told the story of what happened. According to Dad his mother was killed by a stray bullet on a street in N. Dakota. Instead she was killed by a man in a home where she was visiting. He shot her, wounded her friend and then killed himself.
Dad was then placed in a Catholic home for children along with his two sisters. When the opportunity came for him to leave he did so. He went to live with a family in N. Dakota and used to boast that when he went to the 8th grade.... He went in one door and out the back door. He then caught a ride on a box car and headed out.
He joined a rodeo and rode bucking horses until a friend of his who rode bulls died in an exhibition. He went to North Platte, Nebraska where he recovered from injuries he received riding horses. There he met my Mom who was a junior in High School.
They were married on August 1,1930. Mom was an outstanding student and when she married, my Grandfather was very angry and did not speak to them for many months.
Mom promised him that she would finish high school and did so many years later going to Fullerton Junior College.
Seeing pictures of my parents are plentiful during their early marriage. Mom shocked the world when she went flying while pregnant. But she did and was disgraced by critics.
I was born on July 13,1931 and that changed a lot of things. Dad who was a free spirit suddenly become responsible for a family and things were never the same.
Dad worked for Nash Finch a grocery supply company and found the depression not too bad. We lived in a house across the alley from Mom's family. Dad's salary was $60.00 per month and that was excellent pay for this time."
"When my Grandmother would have to leave after a visit, I would be devastated She propped me up on her knee and said, "Don't worry, I will leave something and that will mean I will always be back". Sure enough, she did just that and over the years I had collected lots of her hairpins to reflect her visits".
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When I read these words. Her words. I can almost hear her voice.
There is not a day that goes by where she is not thought of or missed.
I take great comfort in knowing that we will meet again.
Until then.... We love and miss you from where we are!
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