Kate: My grandfather wrote these notes in the months after my grandmother had fallen ill. The Mom he mentions is his wife, my grandmother. They called each other Mom and Pop:
Sabbath, April 12, 1975; To our Loving Children:
Mom is near the end of her life. I kissed her and she responded some, but it was weak. She will probably be past the cares and perplexities of life soon.
We have our burial lots in the cemetery north of Loma Linda. Let me hear immediately if you want to be present. Myrna will be with me so I will have to have no other support. She will be with me. If you want to come to Mom’s funeral let me know immediately.
I prefer only a graveside ceremony. The pastor to make a few remarks and say a short prayer. If the above is not satisfactory let me know immediately. (soon)
I have gotten many condolence wishes [about her illness] but will answer them only with a general letter to be delivered to our friends.
May 31, 1975
Mom seems to be stronger and recognized me. She hated to have me leave her this morning to eat my breakfast. Prospects are that she may live several days. No one of course knows.
Sunday, p.m.
Mom seems to be more alert. She knew me and apparently was glad for me to kiss her.
I will notify you if there is any liability of her passing away.
Pop
Kate: My grandmother died on July 14, 1975. She was 87.
Kate: My grandfather handwrote some further memoirs after my grandmother had died. After her death, my grandfather began to have some memory problems, but he still told entertaining stories:
I shall begin my memoirs by saying that the first part is as I remember my mother and maternal Grandfather telling me. My Grandfather was a small man, not quite as tall as I am, 5’6”. He and Grandmother both came from Leipsig [sic], Germany. All males were required to take military training. Grandpa was too small to be in the army so he was required to take marching. As soon as his term of service was over, he struck off for the land called America. He came to Omaha on the train, and walked up along the foothills to a settlement called Decatur. He got a job and earned money. As soon as he got enough money, he sent it to his wife and baby (the baby was later known as Anna, my aunt) to come to America.
He soon had money enough to make a down payment on the property later known as the Hennig home. They finally had a family of twelve children, eight girls and four boys. Each one had his work to do to help keep food enough for the large family. They never had white flour, but were happy if they had enough to satisfy the hungry mouths. Probably sometimes as pounded up wheat.
Then they had the scourge of grasshoppers. I heard my grandfather say many times: “Mine conscience. They were terrible.” They would come in droves so thick they would darken the sun and eat every thing that was green or growing. Then they had a hard time to get enough to eat that was digestible.
Grandpa finally built a log house for shelter. The house was a one room living quarters. The children went up in the attic to their pad on a ladder through an opening in the floor of the attic. After they were able to afford a better house, the old one was used as a chicken coop. It was still standing as the coop when I was old enough to remember it.
I never heard Grandpa complain about it. It was so much better than the sod house.
My memory of Grandma is very limited. She was quite a “heavy set” woman. I remember the funeral was in the Baptist church. I sat up near the front and the casket was in the front of the church. We all passed around, at the close of the service to view the “Remains”, as it was called. She looked very peaceful.
After Grandma was buried, Grandpa had me come over and help him with his work. I think he wanted me to get acquainted with him. I never lacked for work to keep me busy. I think he wanted us to get acquainted more than his need for me to work. At least I got good exercise.
Now I will turn to the other side of the house and visit my Grandpa Blue’s home. My grandfather was a “heavy set” man. He joined the Baptist church. I think the reason was more for jealousy than wanting to be a “Baptist”. At the best I saw very little of him.
Kate: At this point my grandfather wrote the following parenthetical:
(Here I went over and opened the drawers to look at Mom’s things. I picked up two of them and laid them back down. I began to cry. I went for a walk down to the Park to get a drink and fresh air. Now I am back to my writing.)
We were out in the barnyard at work when I saw him, grandpa, coming from back of the house. Irvin and I were about to run until we saw tears streaming from his eyes. He said, “I have been a big fool.” He asked us to forgive him for being such a fool.
He was a very likeable friendly man. We were glad to have him visit us. He had a hernia on one side and wanted to go to Omaha for the operation. After he got so he could move about, he sent us word that he would be home the next morning on the train. We were to meet him at the depot. Before father started to town, he was notified that grandpa had died in his sleep. We had a funeral instead of a happy meeting. So I never got to know my Grandfather Blue as a friendly man. Just another disappointment in our youthful days.
Kate: At this point, my grandfather wrote about the dog and skunk incident he had related in his earlier memoirs. He also again recounted the story about the cow jumping into the wire fence and having to be put down. He then continues:
A rap just came to my door. A woman came into my room with a large pot of beautiful red roses. I sure wish Mom were here to enjoy them. Also it was from our daughter, Aleta, that had caused us so much grief in our younger days. Since she has gotten older she has made up for all the grief she caused us. That is one reason for me wishing mom was back with us.
Now to go back to the story of my life. As soon as my father saw that we would be better than any two men he could hire, he turned us loose to do the farm work. He seldom came to the field to work unless he needs to show us how to do certain parts of the work. Irvin was older than I was, so he led out in the work. My feet always hurt me when I walked in a plowed field. I would often take off my shoes and walk in my bare feet. My feet would hurt me so badly that after the chores were done I would take off my shoes and lie in the yard and ball [sic].
I want to digress here and give some family history that I think will be of interest. Irvin was older than I was, so always lead out in the work and such like. For some reason father always took a trip to his old home in Indiana quite frequently. This time, I do not know why, he took me with him. He lived east of Michigan City, Indiana. He took me far east of the city to his father’s burial ground. The burial lot had a marble slot stone to match the graves of his grandfather and grandmother. The stones were of marble and were falling apart. We patched them as much as we could and cleaned the ground about them. It was quite a thrill to me to see the graves of my great grandfather and grandmother. I suppose today they are either grown up to sassafras brush or are a plowed field. At least they were on a gentle western slope of the hill. At least I have a picture in my mind of where they were buried. That means much to me.
Now we will go to some of the more recent happenings of my boyhood.
Kate: Here he relates the skunk story again. Obviously that really made an impression on him. Those pages are the last things that I know of that he wrote. He died December 12, 1976, just a few days short of his 90th birthday.
Tuples and Attributes 