You are soooooooo right. I love hearing all of these stories and yours is so touching. You had quite a mother!! It is humbling to see what odds were overcome and we complain about simple things. Karen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kate Foote" <kate@comm1net.net> To: "Sharon Becker" <srbecker@iowatelecom.net>; <iowa@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:07 PM Subject: Re: [IOWA] ilnesses of emigrants > > "Sharon Becker" <srbecker@iowatelecom.net> wrote: > > >> >> I remember my grandmother and great-grandmother and mother making lye >> soap >> out in >> the back yard. They had a giant (okay, I was a little kid - it looked >> like >> it was huge) >> cast iron kettle and used a wooden paddle to stir the concoction. I can >> understand how >> someone's long skirts could catch fire as most of the lady's attention >> was >> focused on >> stirring the pot or keeping one eye out for the children. >> >> > > My mother grew up on a farm in the beginning of the 20th century. They > had > no electricity or indoor plumbing and they were always struggling to feed > and clothe their many children. (Mom was the oldest of 13 - nine grew to > adulthood.) Like Sharon's grandmother, my grandmother also made lye soap > out in the back yard. On one occasion she was distracted by a cow in her > "kitchen garden" - and while she was tackling that bovine 2 year old > Marcella picked up the bottle of lye and drank from it. She lived for an > agonizing two days. > > My grandmother never spoke of the children she lost, but my mother never > recovered from the death of Marcella. Mom must have been about 10 or 11 > when that baby died but she talked about her, with tears in her eyes, the > rest of her life. She also told me about the 1918 flu epidemic. She, > herself, did not get the flu, but she spoke of caring for her parents and > siblings all alone and the terror she felt that she would be left an > orphan- > she was nine years old. After three days an uncle came by to check on > them. > When he saw how bad things were he told my mother he would ride to town > and > get the doctor, which he did, only to return and tell my mother that the > doctor had died the day before. At one point my grandmother called mom to > her bedside for help; grandma was having a miscarriage. When it was over > grandma told my mother that she knew she was going to die soon and she > told > mom that she would trust her to always take care of the other children. > Nine years old!! Can you imagine the horror of it? Yet neither grandma > or > grandpa or any of the children died from that flu - my mother grew up to > become a nurse and at one time even had her own nursing home. She did > private nursing well into her 70's and was always the first to be > requested > by all the doctors. > > But mom never forgot those hard years. She hated farms and poverty (and > the > lack of contraception for women.) She attended school in the one room > school house that her father and uncles had built - eight grades and every > student was a sibling or a cousin. When she announced that she wanted to > go > to high school everyone was shocked! After all, she was just a poor > farmers > daughter, she was needed to help at home, and she was a female to boot! > But > she was determined. She told me how she saved and how she and her mother > "reworked" a dress her aunt gave them, and she spent her savings on a pair > of "ladies" shoes (the first shoes she ever had that weren't someone's old > boots.) Grandpa drove her in the buckboard to the nearest town with a > high > school, twenty-five miles, and she took a job working as a maid for a > family > there. She was given room and board, time off to attend school, church on > Sundays, and one Saturday a month. She graduated with honors, went on for > nurses training, and then returned to that town to marry the son of one of > the leading families. (That's another whole story.) > > My mother never lived on a farm again. I was the only person with her > when > she died. She had been in and out of consciousness for hours, then around > three AM she awoke crying. She was incoherent but kept talking about "the > children" and "someone must help to save them." Then she suddenly calmed, > and (I'm not sure how to explain this...) she seemed to me to be looking > at > something, or someone, near her bed. A smile came on her face and she > clearly said, "Oh, Marcella." And then she passed. > > Genealogy should never be just about names and dates - the stories we have > that are passed to us are held in trust, we are obliged to tell them and > pass them on. > > Blessings, > Kate > > > > > > _____________________________________________ > > For additional information concerning how the list > works, how to sub and unsub and list rules, visit > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~richard/ialist/ > _____________________________________________ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IOWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >