My Dearest Daughter

In 1958 my mother got married and moved across the country. These are the letters written to her, mainly by her mother, between 1958 and 1960, as well as other artifacts from my family’s past. Others in the series are in my del.icio.us file.

My mother’s paternal grandmother (my great-grandmother) was a dear sweet woman. I have never heard anyone say anything about her in a negative way – always that she was like an angel. Her daughter, my Aunt Opal, once told me that she would find her mother in her room on her knees in the middle of the day praying. That is probably how she was able to raise a family of 10 children who all became wonderful adults!

This is Grandma Lowerta and Grandpa Dan early in their marriage.

This is them a few years later with their first two children. Uncle Ivan is the older child. My own grandfather, Calvin, is the baby in the picture sitting on his mother’s lap.

Dan and Lowerta were living in in Indiana trying to make a living, when Dan and his brother saw some handbills about the rich farm land in Manistee County Michigan. So apparently sight unseen, he purchased a large farm up there. Of course, we now know how silly that was. Although that part of Michigan is truly beautifulthe sandy soil does not make for very good farming, though people still try. When Dan and Lowerta arrived in Michigan with their two little sons, they discovered that their house was not yet completed, so for a few weeks Grandma kept house in a railroad box car. It impresses me that shew as able to do that AND keep her little boys safe, but somehow she managed to do it.

At our reunion this year they passed out an obituary for Grandpa Dan.  He passed away from heart disease after 39 years of marriage.  Grandma lived another 39 years. I thought it was interesting that she was a widow as long as she was a wife.  When he passed away his six sons were his pall bearers. I knew that he and my grandpa, Calvin, had had some pretty serious disagreements, apparently he loved and respected his dad enough to honor him in that way. 

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