Born in Louisa County, Iowa, my grandmother was during her life, remains for me still, a profoundly important source of inspiration and guidance in my life. Her life was hard but she lived it with grace and dignity. Like many other Americans of her day, she left school after the eighth grade. She married young, and was widowed young, and married my grandfather three times. She married for the last time in the late 1960s, when she was in her seventies. For much of her adult life, however, she lived alone and worked hard in both Des
Moines and Indianola, to support her only child, my father, during the terrible days of the depression, and then to support herself. In the 1950s and 1960s she managed a motel on old highway 65-69 in Indianola, taking care of guests at all hours of the night, and doing all of the maid and managerial work herself. She was a strong, hard-working, determined woman, who only wanted for her son and his children what she had never had: a good education and a good job that did not require back-breaking physical labor. She faced all of her
adversities and tragedies, and they were many, with extraordinary dignity and grace, and with the highest of moral standards. A devout Christian her entire life, she despaired that I was not one as well, but she was never small-minded enough to hold that against me. She conducted herself always, and at all times, like a lady, a term of respect and a form of behavior that has fallen, sadly, into disrepute in these days of liberated women. But it was that aspect of her character, that dignified, ladylike, behavior, along with her honesty and
integrity, that influenced me the most as I grew up. Even now, fifteen years after her death, whenever I am in doubt as to how I should conduct myself in a situation, I have only to ask myself how she would have behaved. Last, but certainly not least, my grandma had a wonderful sense of humor, knew when to slip a kid an extra five bucks, and made the best damned fried chicken and gravy I have ever tasted. I learned a great deal from her during the twenty-six years she was part of my life. I hope that I never
lose my memories of her, or the wisdom she bestowed upon me. 4/2/92 |
