MORE ABOUT MY FATHER!

I wanted to write some tidbits about my dad that I haven't mentioned before in some of my writings.

I did mention that he was next to the oldest child of 9 siblings. They had larger families back in those days. He was born in Illinois on a farm in 1888. Both of my father's parents were immigrants. My dad's mother came over at the age of 18 from Germany. My dad's father came from Switzerland at the age of 3.

One of the siblings died in infancy. Another boy died at the age of 6 with Pneumonia. The older boys helped a lot in raising the younger children. They also, pooled their resources and helped with grandpa and grandma purchasing and paying for the land that they lived on. So you might know that dad early in his life, took on responsibility and was really a hard worker down through the years.

When he was 24 years of age, he married my mother and together they worked extremely hard.
My dad was a fair man and treated others with respect always. He was highly respected in the community and loved by most.

During my growing up years he was on the school board of our small grade school. All during my high school years he served on the High School Board, as well. He held county offices, but can't remember what they were.

He didn't have only an 8Th grade education, due to the demands at home and work that he had to do to help with the farm, house, and care for the siblings. However, I challenge anyone with a much higher education to compete with my dad's "horse sense". He could figure in his head faster than a person can do on paper. He certainly was well read and was smart.

With that said, I could not have been more proud of my dad, than if he had 10 degrees to his name.

I mentioned before that he was an even tempered man, and was an easy person to get along with.

He loved baseball and when we got television he came down to watch the World Series. How delighted he was to see it instead of hearing about it on radio.

He dearly loved children and was so delighted with his grandchildren.

He retired from farming and moved to town close to the farm. He seemed to enjoy going out and helping on the farm even after retiring. I asked him why he was still going out to work when he didn't need to do that. He told me that too many active farmers retire and because of inactivity die within a couple years later. I never mentioned this to him again after this.

The summer before he passed away, I asked him if he had to do it all over again, what would he like to have done? He said to me that he would be a farmer again. He loved working out in the open air, loved being his own boss and enjoyed what he did.

Ten days before my father passed away, he had a bad cold. We were up visiting him and I told him that he needed to go to the doctor for his cold. I also, told him he needed to get a physical. I mentioned that he could have heart problems and not know it. He got up from his chair and told me, "That would just give me something to worry about". He went into the kitchen and returned immediately and sat down. I continued to try to persuade him to follow through on this. We also discussed what we planned to name our soon to be child. He said to me, "You just can't beat the name of "Mary".

Ten days later my father died of a heart attach while picking corn with a corn picker. My youngest daughter was one month from being born. The years was 1954. After he died, I asked my husband if he minded if we had a girl, that we name her "Mary"? We did have a girl and we named her "Mary". Dad would have been so proud of each of his grandchildren, had he lived to see all their accomplishments.

Tomorrow I will tell about the funeral arrangements.

Thought for today--I truly lost a "great friend and father that day long ago"!