Dancing Memories

Adolph and Marie (my Grandma and Grandpa) loved to dance.  Grandma who grew up in Denmark told my sister Brenda that her mother (Lovise) taught all 12 of her children to dance.

My uncle Kenneth remembers going with Marie and Adolph to dances at the IOOF Hall in Aurelia (1939 -1945).  When the night got late he would lie on the pile of coats and go to sleep.  Uncle Kenny would have been about 8-12 years old.  Often his mom would take him to the dance floor and teach him to dance.

Later his ability to dance served Uncle Kenny well.  He met Aunt Evie at Iowa State University and asked her to a dance at the Union.  They took to the dance floor and she walked off!  Uncle Ken didn’t give up and took her to the ValAire in Des Moines.  There he took her off to the side and taught her some dance steps and she loved it.  And they have been dancing ever since.

Living With Eleanor

During one school year I lived with Eleanor during the week.  It was a special time to get to know each other and I leaned so much from her about aging gracefully. She shared family stories and bank stories..(never leaving until balanced…never!)

As a young man Eleanor’s brother Don had new white suit for a special occasion.  As he was returning home in the rain he wanted to spare his suit.  He pulled the car under a nearby gas station canopy.  He took the suit off and put it in the car, climbed in and drove home, pulled into the garage and then sprinted to the house in the dark in his skivvies leaving the white suit dry in the car for the next morning.

She remembered her niece Carol saying, “Are you sassified?” (satisfied).

Her family lived close enough to hear the train and in Carol’s mind the sound of the whistle was tied to when the grownups had coffee.  When she would hear the whistle Carol would pipe up and say “Gwanma, it’s the coffee train!”

We would play cribbage and Eleanor would have the count before I picked up my hand.  She found all points and beat me regularly.  She and her friends would play Shanghai and if it were an evening I was included.

We watched together her set of Johnny Carson videos and laughed and laughed.  She could watch a movie with Sidney Portier and shed tears, along with the flag being raised and the national anthem sung.

She loved feeding the birds and knew the right seeds to attract cardinals especially.

Her four season room was an oasis and indeed in our next home I tried to replicate it.

At Christmas she baked 12 kinds of cookies to meet the standard of a good Swedish woman.

Eleanor had miles and miles (thousands) on her stationery bike…she rode it every morning while watching a morning TV news show.  At one point she was encouraged to go for some rehab and she reported she was “shamed” into acceleration.

At Augustana we had an intern Mauricio Haake from Brazil.  He and his wife Christine had two children Mateus and Raquel.  Eleanor became Grandma to them and for other children.  She  had also collected daughters and I considered it an honor that I achieved that status.

She worked the daily crossword puzzle, created beautiful counted cross stitch and when she couldn’t sleep she didn’t fret or fuss. but got up and played computer games…sharpening her cribbage skills and routinely beating the computer.

Bless you Eleanor.

May 7, 1925 - April 29, 2017