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

AH SANIBEL

And the anticipation of a week in the sun during winter in Iowa.

And then……

Influenza A and the indignity of having had the flu shot!
Awaken with a rather ignorable cough.    and then Headache.
Wash hands.. Goopy eyes.. Cough until stomach hurts, cough drops.. Flirt with earache.. Headache
Wash hands.. Tired..Sleep..Cough..cough drops..Headache
Wash hands..Suck cough drops.. Do one load of laundry. Rest. Put in dryer.  Rest.
Fold the next day!
Wake up to snow and wind…didn’t know it was predicted because I move from couch to bed at 9:00 and fall asleep right away
Cleaning up means brushing teeth, shower and clean pajamas!  and collecting used cough drop wrappers and Kleenex and then repeating.

 

And in spite of it all we made it to Sanibel 3 days late and it was wonderful.

 

We enjoyed walking the beach, enjoying great food at wonderful eateries.

Mike and Jim bike and sometimes tell (tall) tales.

We lunched with Bill and Lorraine.

 

Sunburned and enjoyed the ocean.

 

Enjoyed Linda and Jim and their sharing of a wonderful island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach art photographed by Linda!

 

 

The Dime Jar

My sister and I were laughing as we remembered  the dime jar!

 This is the dime jar.  It sat on Mom’s walnut hutch.

 

Dad would take the dimes from his pocket change and put them in the dime jar.  Each Sunday he would make sure each of us – the four sisters – had a dime for Sunday School offering.

And our laughter was remembering David our paper boy.  He would come to collect for the week’s papers and tear out the little coupon stub from his flip book showing that we had paid.  More than once when he came to collect, we might say Mom and Dad aren’t home so we don’t have any money and David would pipe up “get it from the dime jar!”

Hoosier Cabinet

Web picture of Hoosier very similar to ours.

    
A Hoosier cabinet (also known as a "Hoosier") is a type of cupboard popular in the first decades of the 20th century.  The base section usually has one large compartment with a slide-out shelf, and several drawers to one side.  The top portion is shallower and has several smaller compartments with doors. The top of the lower cabinet is a sliding enamel countertop. Often these cabinets included flour sifters, shelves and spice organizers. (Wikipedia)

My Grandpa (Adolph Gregersen) was friends with two neighbor boys while he was growing up in Denmark. The two boys were brothers, Ingamond* and Magnus Ibsen, and both were a few years older than Adolph. In hopes to better their positions in life, these two young men had left Denmark and had gone to the United States in 1915. They had gone to Riceville, Iowa to be with friends. There they had been hired to do road tiling.

At the age of nineteen, out of what he calls "the foolishness of youth” Grandpa decided to go to America in March of 1916.

Grandpa kept in contact with the 2 Ibsen brothers.  They had rented a farm near Saratoga.  In the fall of 1918 Magnus died of the flu.  Ingemon was so lonesome and hence wanted to return to Denmark. On July 4, 1920 Ingemon Ibsen came to Alta and talked with Grandma and Grandpa (Adolph and Marie) who were making plans to get married. He made a verbal agreement with them that when they got married they could take the farm he was renting from Charlie Brodersen** (near Riceville, Iowa) with the debts and Ingemon would return to Denmark. 

So Grandma and Grandpa moved to Saratoga.  Grandpa went to the bank and signed to take over the remaining debt for farm machinery and household items and livestock. (This information comes from the document A Family Account January 1, 1976 by Brenda L. Samuelson)

 The phrase “household items” gives us the starting point of this Hoosier Cabinet.  It was part of the furniture left by the Ibsens in Grandma and Grandpa’s first farm.   That Hoosier then moved with Grandma and Grandpa through 4 farm moves and then the move to their home in Alta where they retired.  After Grandma died this Hoosier Cabinet has resided with my Mom (Clara Gregersen Samuelson) in Storm Lake.  Mom has now shared that it should move to our home.

In 1980 Ken (my mother's brother) talked to Carl-ole (first cousin of Clara) in Denmark and learned that Ingemon indeed returned to Denmark and settled close to Carl-ole.  He married later in life and completed his life in a nursing home.

 *Ingemon or Ingamond alternate spellings

**Brodersen or Brodesen alternate spellings

Family Summary

Adolph Marinus Gregersen and (Maren) Marie Nielsen Gregersen

         Daughter Clara Elizabeth Gregersen Samuelson

                 Granddaughter Colleen Ann Samuelson Last

Our Hoosier

Closure

End of the season

September October

Taking down the curtains

Packing up

Taking food home

Defrosting refrigerator

Collecting liquids to take home

Covering belongings

Moving furniture

Setting mouse bait

Shutting off water

Draining the pipes

Adding antifreeze

Cleaning boat

Rolling boat inside

Storing the wind sock,

the garden stones,

           the solar fountain,

                                the loon and the seagull

Closing the Cabin

Hungarian Blue Blocks On-Point

a         

Overall Quilt size 49” x 66” (bed or couch throw)

Traditional pattern with the quilt blocks on-point using the Hungarian blue blocks with white blocks (white on white floral).

The backing and borders are blue batik.

It was machine quilted by Sandy Stark using cotton batting.

This quilt idea came about in fall, 2015 while looking for information about Hungary.  While reading and exploring Hungary I learned that Hungary was known for Kékfestő the traditional Hungarian textile art of blue-dyeing in a process similar to batik.  To create Kékfestő white cotton fabric is block printed to form the pattern with wax and then dyed blue.  When the wax is removed the pattern is revealed. 

 After checking for sources of Kékfestő online I found a source for a charm pack (fifty  5 x 5 in squares) in Great Britain. The quilt was finished in March, 2016.

 

A Stone

This picture arrived by text letting me know that the stone to mark the grave of my dad had been placed at the cemetery in Albert City.  It has been ten months since he died.  We knew that the monument company would place the grave marker after winter weather and before Memorial Day.

The memories of cemetery and returning Dad’s body to earth came back. Hearing the words,

 “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to almighty God our brother Melvin, and we commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

Sitting in the front row in front of the coffin with family and friends surrounding us.  Sharing flowers from the blanket bouquet on the coffin.  Watching as they partially lowered the coffin.  Turning and walking away and being greeted by family and friends.  Taking pictures….and finally driving away.

And then the memories of being a child and a day or two before Memorial Day Mom and Dad would put us in the car.  In the trunk were our collection of vases with a spike on the bottom that could be pushed into the ground and hold fresh flowers but also assorted bouquets of artificial flowers and wreaths.  Just before we left Mom would cut flowers from our yard…I seem to remember some bridal wreath and irises.  At Albert City Dad would name the graves of Grandma and Grandpa Samuelson, Great Grandma and Grandpa Samuelson, a baby’s grave.  We would then move to another location and find Dad’s uncle and another set of great grandparents.   In the later years when we were with Mom and Dad at the cemetery Dad would then point to the vacant spots for him and Mom.