Gentle Steel
Sarah Seward was born in eastern Iowa in the early years of the 20th century. As the youngest in a family of ten living in a coal-mining community, she learned sharing, perseverance, and thrift at an early age. These qualities were reinforced by a steely determination and independence that she developed after being orphaned in her early teens.
These were the qualities that enabled her to carry on with indubitable spirit after the deaths of two of her children, Raymond and Elizabeth, and the later death of Robert M. Walker, her husband. As a single parent and determined to be self-reliant, she gave love and nurturing to her children, Betty and Robert, and other family members after working long days. She glowed with a quiet pride that she held in her family and her work. Both bore the compassionate qualities that emerged from her undemanding sow.
Two encounters with cancer did not diminish her spirit, but fired her determination to fight the enemy that sought to overcome her. She treated the disease with scorn and respect, but not fear. After successfully combating it, she counseled others who were victims of this intrusive attacker.
Fueled by her independent spirit she continued working daily until at age 75 she sought retirement in the same spirit that carried her though her life. She went to the gentle rest that she had earned in June 1992. 7/1/96 |
