Reva Grace Jenkins

GRAMMY

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF

REVA GRACE JENKINS LINDHOLM

EDITED BY ANNIE WIEDERSTEIN

EARLY CHILDHOOD

I was born on December 1, 1913, to Daniel Jenkins and Florence Ida Bush Jenkins.  No one has ever said what kind of day it was.  My first memory was my third birthday.  I remember getting a pair of pink mittens, and my birthday cake was a loaf cake.  I don't remember what kind it was.  I also remember going for my first car ride with my parents and some neighbors, who owned a car.  We went to visit the son and daughter-in-law of the neighbors the Crystals.  The people we visited were Vern and Bess Crystal, who lived in Roberts, Idaho.

I started school in the fall just before I was 6 years old.  My sister Ora had gone to school the year before but she didn't want to go that year, so I had to go with her even though I was still too young.  I didn't go very long though, as I had pneumonia at Christmas-time and I couldn't go to school again that year.

I remember when my younger brother Daniel was born.  I don't know how old I was, but I remember I had a childhood disease and I couldn't see him except through the crack in the door.  He only lived a few days and was what they called a “blue baby.”  As I understand now, it had something to do with Rh factor, as they know it today.  I also had a little sister Ardith Yvonne who lived until she was 18 months old.  She died of pneumonia.   I remember that my father kept house and cooked for all of us, while she was sick, so Mother could take care of her.  What I remember about that time was the very good raisin pies my father made.  I have never since eaten a raisin pie that compared to those.

Our nearest neighbor was on old German man whose name was Mr. Seltzer. He was a good neighbor and he seemed to like us kids as if we were his.  At that time, there was Stella, Keith, Rod, Florence, Ora, and me at home.

I also remember after Mr. Seltzer moved away that the Ball Family came to live in the same house. We were good friends of theirs and I played with the kids very day. My very distinct memory of that family was that they had some turkeys and I was scared to death of them.  I didn't dare go in the yard when they were there. One day they scared me so bad that, I went in the house when no one was home. Then worried that someone would find me and accuse me of something I didn't do.

My oldest brother, Keith was my Buddy and I wanted him to wait on me, just like any little kid would want. I remember that one evening I was in the yard and I wanted a drink of water from the pump, so I thought he should get it for me.  But he was going in the house.  When he didn't get the water, I was very put out and followed him in.  There was my big brother crying.  That's when I found out he had broken his arm. I was really sorry I had been so nasty with him.

We all had work to do on the farm, mostly thinning and hoeing beets, cutting & weeding potatoes, and helping to harvest them in the fall. When I was older, my sisters and I would go and help the neighbors with their work too. We would get 50c or maybe 75c a day to pick spuds, all day.  We were very happy to make enough money to buy a dress, a pair of shoes. If we were lucky, we could earn enough to buy a coat.  One year, we thinned beets and when we finished mother gave us 2 dozen eggs to take to town to buy candy.  That was our pay. Of course, we always had plenty to eat, and all the clothes we needed. Sometimes not the best, but Mother usually managed to make us a new dress for the 4th of July and for Christmas.

I also remember when we wanted a little extra money; we would send for some garden seed or Cloverine Salve and go around the neighborhood selling them.

In those days we drove a horse and buggy.  The horse was used for riding also.  We didn't use our father's Work Horses.  He was very proud of them and I remember in the winter, he would bring baskets of spuds and carrots into the kitchen and cut them up in little pieces to feed to his horses.  He said it made their coats shiny and pretty.

At Easter time, he would challenge us to a contest to see which one of us could hide the most eggs.  We would all choose a place to hide ours and would take them a few every day until Easter morning.  Then we would bring them in the house and it always happened that Dad would have at least twice as many as any of us.  It was real fun.

SCHOOL YEARS   

When we went to school we always had to walk at least a quarter of a mile to catch the school wagon.  We didn't have busses in those days.  When it was the coldest, the man who drove the school wagon would put straw in the bottom of the wagon, so our feet wouldn't get cold.  Then when it was the very coldest, he heated rocks and put them in among the straw to heat it up to keep our feet warm.

There are a couple more things I remember about our home life. They are mostly in my younger life.  I remember how scared we were whenever we heard about Indians being in the area.  The only time I ever remember seeing any Indians was one day when we were working in the field.  They were going along the road, quite away from us. We were quite relieved.

Our play time consisted of playing with the neighbor kids.  We had some large trees around our yard, and the branches were large enough to make play house in them.  We had a large orchard and we loved to play there, because it was always cool.  When we went swimming it was usually in a canal.  We liked to have our father go swimming with us, because he would always clown around.  He was a good swimmer and liked to show us kids how he could swim like a "Frog".

About the only outside recreation we ever got was when we would go to visit friends or relatives.  For a few years Dad would take Mother, Florence, Ora and me to Midvale, Utah for the Jenkins Family Reunion. It was quite a thrill, because we had so few other vacations.

I remember when I was just a little kid, and the Thresher came. At that time they had very big steam engines to run the thresher-separator.  It seemed to me, it was bigger than a train locomotive steam engine, but it really wasn't.  Anyway, when it came to our place, it would come into the yard with the whistle blowing and would scare me half to death. (Like when the pigs squealed, when they were butchered.)  I would run to the darkest corner to get away from it.  Then, when it started the threshing I would be around, in the way half the time.  I guess I was just a typical kid.

We had a good family life.  We weren't rich, by any means, but we always had enough.  Dad was quite strict, especially with his girls. Most of the time he wasn't very pleased with our friends, and was quite verbal in his dislikes of our boyfriends.  However, he was a good father and taught us a lot of things.

I remember every winter we would have a day set aside to make "Saur Kraut" and another to make sausage ETC.  We would all help to cut up the meat and Dad would grind the sausage meat with a hand grinder and season it to taste.  He would have mother fry a little bit of the sausage for him to taste.  If it didn't suit him, he would add more seasoning and taste it again until he had it just right. Since then, I have never tasted as good a sausage as he made.

The fat from the pigs we would cut up and cook until it was golden brown.  Then we put it in large tin cans and keep it all through the year for cooking.  I still think good lard makes better pie crust than any of the finest shortenings.

HIGH SCHOOL

I started High School the fall of 1928 and graduated the spring of 1932. In high school, I was always interested in the music department. I was in the school chorus all four years. The last year I played in the high school orchestra, playing the bass violin. It was fun and something I never thought I could do or would have a chance to do. I also took piano lessons one winter, and had to walk home through the snow; most of the time when it was quite cold and the wind was blowing. It was worth it though. And even if I didn’t get to take many lessons, I have always enjoyed playing the piano to amuse myself. I took part in the school operettas, taking the lead in one entitled “Jerry of Jericho Road” when I was a sophomore. The others I don’t even remember the titles.

          While I was growing up, I always went to church and took part in a lot of activities, such as plays and choirs. During my youth, I sang every time I had a chance. I sang solos in Sacrament Meeting, at school and at funerals, I took three years of seminary and to graduate, we all had to give one talk in our last year. I usually sang a solo, but I made sure that I only had to speak once. That I didn’t enjoy. We would go to a different ward every Sunday evening during January and February and really had fun.

          One spring, we were putting on a play or operetta or something. The director told us when we got through she would take us to Idaho Falls to a picture show, then to her house for refreshments. We were to gather at the high school and go from there. I remember that as I went to get in the car, I rubbed my right leg along the edge of the running board. Doing so I got a sliver in the calf of my leg. It healed over and didn’t give me any trouble. Through the years, I could feel that lump in my leg, but it never bothered me. Then in 1979, after my 4th hip operation, that sliver came to the surface and got red and sore. It worried me until one day after I had been putting hot packs on it. I opened it with a needle and the sliver popped out. It had been in my calf almost 5O years!

MEETING ROSS

After graduation, I worked in the seed house sorting pea seed. It was the summer I graduated that I met Ross Lindholm. We became engaged on my birthday December 1, 1932. We were married on March 29, 1933 in the Salt Lake Temple. I’ve thought about it a lot and can’t think of much that took place while Ross and I were going together. [Want a bet? Keep reading! A.W.]

We met at a June 14th celebration at Rigby in 1932. He and Leonard Bateman were together and Altha Kinghorn (Phippen) and I were together. They took us home from the celebration and other than that, I can’t remember that we did anything. I know that we didn’t meet again for over a long time. I can’t remember where or when.

While we were going together, he had a 1926 Ford Roadster, in which we had a lot of fun. During the summer, when he wasn’t away working, he would come to see me at least twice a week. When he got about two miles from the house, he would start blowing the exhaust whistle that he had on the car and of course all the neighbors knew as well as I who it was. He got a lot of kidding about it.

I remember on Saturday evening he came and got me to go for a ride. He said he had to go see a man who lived a mile south of Ammon. So, we were riding along nicely by the sand hills just west and south of where we used to live. (South of Ammon) Suddenly there was a skunk in the road ahead of us. There wasn’t room to go around him, so we followed along behind him for almost a mile before he got out of the road.

We used to go to dances, once in a while, mostly at Riverside Gardens. I loved to dance, but Ross wasn’t crazy about it.

Ross was quite bashful around my Dad and Mother. I remember on Sunday when he came to see me, Mother had dinner just about ready so when we sat down to eat, Dad asked him to eat with us and Ross said, “Ah no, I’m not hungry.” And Dad said, “Oh, come on and eat with us. I’d rather feed a man who says he’s hungry, than one who says he’s not. They don’t eat half as much.”

          Dad really liked Ross and would trust him to do things for him, when he wouldn’t trust his own sons. I remember this, because one Saturday evening after we were married, we were at my folks and some neighbors dropped in to visit. Dad excused himself to milk the cows, and Ross offered to do it for him, so Dad could visit. It really impressed Dad and they got along really well after that.

EARLY SPRING WEDDING

One Sunday evening before we were married, Ross drove his car up to Rigby from Idaho Falls, but couldn’t get the other two miles to the house because of the snow, so he walked in from there. Dad took us and my mother in the sleigh to the car. Then we went to Lindholm’s for the night and we left for Salt Lake the next morning to be married in the Temple. Just before we left home, Ross asked Dad if it was all right with him if we got married and he said, “I guess it is, if I said no you’d go get married anyway.”

We had four receptions and got an enormous amount of gifts, some of which I remember. The 3 dozen towels, 18 dishtowels, and enough sheets and pillow cases lasted 10 years. The showers were given by Florence, Stell, Dad and Mother and a Wedding Dance at the Iona Church.

We spent a week in Salt Lake for our honeymoon. When we got back we moved into the Brick house on the (Lindholm) farm. The night we got home, a crowd of people from Iona, who were friends and acquaintances of Ross came to give us a ~Chivary.~ [sp] We talked them out of that and gave them all supper instead. They were not too happy about not getting us out, so a bunch of the guys picked some burrs out of some weeds in the garden and put them in our bed, then stood outside the house and watched us get into bed. Instead of getting in bed and being surprised by the burrs, I flipped the quilts back and discovered them.  So we  spent  quite  a  while picking them out of wool blankets. I guess the guys were just a little bit disappointed.

         

Ross and I were very happy on the farm. We worked hard on the farm a mile and a quarter north of Iona, Idaho. Our five children were born while we lived there. Brent and Elaine were born in the house that is still there. Neal and LaRue were born in the Riverview Hospital, (then the L.D.S. Hospital) Annie was born in Rigby, at Henderson’s Maternity Home. The two oldest and LaRue graduated from Bonneville High School. Brent and Elaine right after it had consolidated from Iona, Ucon and Ammon. Brent was in the first graduating class. And Elaine graduated two years later. Neal didn’t graduate because he wanted to go to work and help me after his father died.

ON THE FARM

During our farming years I did a lot of different things, such as cultivating spuds, hoeing beets, cutting and raking hay, driving truck in the spud harvest, cutting and picking spuds. Along with the house work and the cooking, as tell as raising my family, it was a busy time.

          Ross was a good farmer and the neighbors always complimented him on how straight his potato and beet rows were. In the summer his haystacks were the envy of all the neighbors. He took pride in his work.

          They always waited until he set up his beet cultivator and spud cultivator and then they wanted to borrow them. They also liked to come and use his blacksmith shop because he had equipment they didn’t have. That went well until his tools started to disappear, then he locked the shop.

          I would use the horses and drive them to the yard at night. But I would make sure there was someone there to take them into the barn and harness them. I admit I wasn’t very brave where the livestock were concerned.

          I always raised 2 or 3 hundred chickens most years and would can them in the fall. We would have them along with our other canned products, which consisted of 4-6 hundred quarts of peas, beans, corn, peaches, apricots, pears, cherries, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, etc. That was always a big job. Winters were hard but we always had plenty of everything, except money, of course.

Ross would feed cattle most every winter and would save one of the best of the herd for our own use. He would get up at 4:00 a.m. and go to Lincoln, which was about 5 miles away. He would get a load of beet pulp and be home around 9:00 a.m. to feed the livestock.

Most of our work, such as beet thinning, beet topping, spud picking and hay work was done by hired help. We had fellows from South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah and numerous other places to do the fall work. They always insisted on us giving them board and room, they enjoyed the home-cooked food. In the evenings, they would usually play cards and sit around shooting the breeze.

The most fun we had was at threshing time. The men would trade work and go from one farm to the other and the women sometimes traded help to do the cooking. They always seemed to like coming to our house because we had a table that would seat 23 people and could get them all seated at the same time. We also gave them coffee and some of the women wouldn’t. Meal times were a lot of fun.

          I'll never forget when Ross decided to give up threshing and go to the combine. That meant that we wouldn’t have to cook dinner for more than 2 or 3 extras. When we found out what he had decided, Elaine said, almost with tears in her eyes, “Gee, Mom, what are we going to do if we don’t have threshers to cook for?” That was in the fall just before she and J.D. Ritchie were engaged, in 1953.

          Another thing that was a lot of fun while on the farm was a donkey that Ross bought for the boys. I don’t even remember her name now, but she was a lot of fun.

          We also had fun after we built our outside fireplace. We had a lot of dinners and suppers around it. We had a big lawn and the kids loved to have their friends come and have parties.

The winters of 1933, and 1948-49 were the worst winters we had. Most of the winter we were snowed in and had drifts along the side of the house that we couldn’t see over. Along the highway into Idaho Falls, the drifts were sometimes above the fence posts. One winter they were almost to the tops of the telephone poles.

NORTH IDAHO

In October 1954 we sold the farm, and moved to Iona. We stayed there until just after Christmas that year. Then we moved to North Idaho, between Coeur D’Alene and Sandpoint. [No kidding, the name of the little town is Cocolalla. A.W.]

We were there 1 1/2 years, then moved to Bayview where Ross had a job at a marina. I worked at a motel there. We were there until 26 July when Ross was accidentally shot in the head. He died on August 9, 1956 at Coeur D’Alene.

          After Ross died we moved back to lona. We lived in a little house in lona that was known as the “Do-Drop Inn”. We live there until the spring of 1957. Neal, at that time, was working for Tom Lake as a plumber’s helper. I was working at Montgomery Wards. LaRue went to school at O.E. Bell Jr. High School and Annie at Belaire Elementary School, now Erickson. We lived at 613 First Street in Idaho Falls.

THE NEXT STEP                 

At Christmastime of 1957 I met Paul Vanderhoef. He was living in a hotel in Idaho Falls and a mutual friend made us acquainted. We started dating and were married on April 18, 1959.

          My courtship with Paul was just more frustration. I did love him, tried to make our marriage work. He may have had some feelings for me, but he took all he could and gave very little. Even before we were married I would wait on him sometimes more than I waited on my family.

          As time went on, he became more aggressive and harder to get along with. 12 years was all I could take.             

          We decided the house on First Street was too small, as LaRue and Annie were still at home. We sold it and moved to a house southeast of Ammon in October 1959. LaRue went to Bonneville High School and Annie to Ammon Elementary.

          Paul and l worked winters at Taube’s Potato Warehouse. I worked three summers for Wards, most of the time he was on a job out of town. I quit my job so I could be with him. He had said if I didn’t, it would mean divorce, which now I wish I had gone along with.

          LaRue was married August 2, 1963. We sold the house at Ammon in 1966 and moved into a small trailer house and moved to Montpelier where Paul was working for Roger’s Construction.

          I went with LaRue and Annie to Martinez, California when LaRue moved there to wait for Ralph to come home from overseas. Annie stayed with them until after Amy was born on July 28, 1966. Barbara had been born October 7, 1964 in Idaho Falls.

          Annie came home in September and started her first year in high school in Montpelier. We then moved to Firth and then to Austin, Nevada. Our summer there was a very rough time.

          We moved back to Idaho Falls in November and neither of us worked for a little while. When he did get a job, he quit and went goofing off.

          In the fall of 1968 Annie went to New York to live with LaRue and Ralph. I took a door-to-door job that lasted a couple of months. But the weather was too bad to continue. A few times I drove a pilot car to pilot house trailers. I made one trip to Salmon, one to West Yellowstone and one to Billings, Montana. Paul sometimes worked at the Sugar Factory in Lincoln.

          The summer of 1969, we lived most of the time in Spencer where Paul worked on another road crew. The winter of 1969-70, we didn’t do much except buy metal, batteries etc. and live on Paul’s unemployment. In June of 1970, went to New York to Annie’s high school graduation.

DOWN THE VALLEY & THE FOREST SERVICE

During the next few years, Mom and I lived in the Pocatello area. I went to college at Idaho State University. Mom and I shared a lot. She welcomed my friends into our home and encouraged me in the activities that I had.

          She had lots of little jobs, cake decorating, crocheting etc. She had a job at Royal Optical in downtown Pocatello in the early 1970s. That’s where she worked when I met and married Mike. She was fairly established by then, with job and friends. A couple years later she got a job at the Caribou National Forest Service Office through a federal senior program. That’s where we continue.

NOTE:       The following is taken from the Caribou Bull, the newsletter for the Caribou National Forest.

Reva Lindholm - that "more mature" lady in the Engineering Section has worked for the Forest Service for 4 years.

          Reva began life as one of seven children — 2 boys and 5 girls. Unfortunately there are only 3 of the children alive today. Reva’s parents farmed near Rigby, Idaho. She graduated from Rigby High School in 1932 and was married in 1933. She lived in Iona, Idaho, for 23 years and in and around Idaho Falls for 16 years. In 1971 she moved to Pocatello and has lived here ever since, though her construction husband did take her to Austin, Nevada for six months while he worked there.

          According to Reva, she spent her whole life in Southeast Idaho except for a few trips to New York, and travel to Virginia, Kansas, California, and Washington, D.C. She’s also been to Rochester, Minnesota 3 times for orthopedic work.

          For hobbies, Reva enjoys cake decorating, crocheting and leather tooling. She said she learned leather tooling from her sons because she didn’t want them to “do something I couldn’t do.”

          Reva has raised five children of her own 3 girls and 2 boys. They are all married and gone.

          Prior to coming to work with the Forest Service, Reva has worked for an optical company, a potato warehouse, has cooked and been a retail clerk.

          While working for us under the Senior Citizen Program, she has assisted in almost every other functional area. She has helped B & F, Office Services. Procurement D-5 and at Soda Springs, Grays Lake and the Pocatello Warehouse, painting Forest Service signs. Reva has even driven, in convoys, Forest Service vehicles from one place to another. She had used the tag typewriters, copy machines and has assisted in map work for the Forest Land Use Plan. Reva says she really likes working with the Forest Service folks. When asked which work she enjoyed most, she said, “Typing and sign painting.” The work she found the most frustrating was planimeter. (map measurements) She did that for 6 months. According to Larry Call, a steady diet of planimeter work is the freeway to insanity.) The fact that Reva did it so long and still “tracks” is a credit to her stability. (Though Reva herself will tell you she is not sure whether she is ‘tracking’ or not.)

          It’s nice to have you with us, Reva. Keep up the good work.

NOTE:       Mom worked with the Forest Service from  Jan. 28, 1978 -  May 23, 1982. She then moved to Idaho Falls on  June 3, 1982. Upon retirement from the Forest Service she received a special certificate and a cash gift. AW

BACK UP THE VALLEY

In the spring of 1982 my legs started giving me a lot of trouble so I decided it was time for me to retire.  I hated to leave the Forest Service.  It was the best job I'd ever had and I had made a lot of good friends.

          My last day with the Forest Service was May 23, 1982.

          After a week of retirement parties, goodbyes, and packing I moved to Idaho Falls with the help of my family and a lot of good friends. The most important being Bob and Verla Collins and their son Reo and a friend of his who furnished the truck and came and moved me on June 3, 1982.

          I moved into a subsidized apartment at 1325 Hoopes Avenue in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  It was nice and had conveniences I thought I'd never have.  I was there almost a year when I had a severe heart attack on May 27, 1983. 

          Elaine and I had gone shopping and had bought flowers to take to Ross' grave at Fielding Memorial Park.  On the way there we stopped at the Bank of Commerce for Elaine to do some business.  While she was inside, a pain started in my chest and as we drove down the highway toward the cemetery, the pain got progressively worse.  Elaine put a plant at her father's grave and said, "Sorry to be in such a hurry, Dad, but I have better things to do," and came back to the car.  She took me to Parkview Hospital where I stayed in Intensive Care for a week.  It seemed like a year.

Then after a few days in a regular hospital room, I went to Elaine's until I was better.  But just after midnight on the first night at Elaine's the pain started again and I went back to the hospital for another 10 days.  Following this, I went back to Elaine's. I really started doing well and soon went back to the apartment.

It was while I was in the hospital the first time that Neal came back to Idaho Falls from Filer after he and Phyllis broke up.  He spent that summer in Montana working on a cattle ranch. 

In August 1983 Annie, Michael, Julie, LaRue, and Ann and Hugo Wiederstein came for a couple days.  That was a very special time.  We did so enjoy the association with Ann & Hugo and have hoped ever since that they would come back again.

          We had a party at Elaine and J.D.'s while they were here and had between 50 and 60 people.  Neal came down from Montana.  I think Allison and Dean were the only ones of the family who weren't there. Dean was on a mission at the time.  It was the first time in 10 years we had all been together.

Neal came back here in October of 1983 and opened a saddle shop, which he struggled with for a year and a half.  Then he got a job with Northwest Sign Company, where he worked for quite some time.  He closed his shop in October 1985.

          In March 1984, Annie and Julie came to Pocatello with a friend who was going to Washington.  They stopped at Tyla's and she brought them to my house that afternoon.

          While they were here, Neal closed the shop for a day.  We all went to Twin Falls and got Allison and brought her home with us to stay for spring break. We took Annie and Julie to Salt Lake for their flight home to Kansas.

A week or so later, when it was time for them to go, we picked up Brent in Blackfoot and all went to Salt Lake.

          We went to the Temple Visitors Center and to a museum there before we went to the airport. Annie and Julie met a friend there who kept them company while they waited to make connections for their flight.

          Now I was alone in the apartment for a while and getting along fine.  In the summer of 1984, Frank Lindholm, Ross's brother, went to the hospital where he died in August of that year.  I was able to see Gordon, Frank's youngest son.

The winter of 1984 was a beast and I didn't get out of the house for weeks.  The sidewalks were so slick most of the time, I had to have the paperboy bring in my mail.

          I guess I was getting too confident.  I hadn't been in the hospital for a little over 2 years and on the evening of July 12, I was in the bathtub on my sliding bath chair.  I had forgotten to put a bathmat in the tub.  I started to get out of the tub with my weak right leg. (The weakest one.)  My left leg, which was still in the tub, slipped and I felt the right one pop.  Slowly I moved to the toilet seat.  I could tell by the way it moved that it was broken, so I got on my crutches and got to bed. I got in and propped it up.  It wasn't really very painful.  I understand now that I was probably in shock.

          I got up a couple times for a various reasons.  When I got to sleep, I slept right through until about 6 a.m.  That's when I decided to call the Kids.  Brent, Neal, Elaine, and Dean came. Brent and Dean administered to me right before they took me to the hospital.

          I was in the hospital for about 10 days, which I have little memory of.  I do know I had a lot of visitor’s and beautiful flowers.

    [Editor's Note:  Mom's injury was very serious.  The femur fractured at the end of the metal rod that supported the hip prosthesis.  The surgeon had to remove that rod and insert another, several inches longer.  He had quite a time getting the bone marrow to pack around the new rod.  He was an excellent surgeon, but that's where his talents ended.  Mother and all those associated with her at that time indicate that he visited once then left her in the care of the nurses and never visited again.]

Upon release from the hospital, I was taken to Valley Care Center, where I stayed a month.  I hope I never have to spend another minute in such a place.  I would probably have been there longer if I hadn't checked myself out on August 24 when Neal came to get me.

Neal has been living with me since and has been a big help to me.

          On October 26, 1985 we moved to 660 College. It was nice because we had a lot more room.  It was especially nice to have our own washer and dryer.  I have been either on crutches or a wheelchair since the accident.

******

They moved to the old Thornton farmhouse for a while and then to a duplex at Beeches Corner. They were in the duplex when Neal passed away in May 1992. That experience was very hard of all of us. Mom especially had a difficult time getting it together after that. We all moved her into the Lincoln Court Retirement Center in January 1993, where she remained until her death in 1998.

Although she groused about Lincoln Court, she was really quite happy there with people of her age and interests. We could go eat dinner with her from time to time and take her out to do various errands. She was also an avid BINGO player and I remember how cool she thought it was to take someone to lunch with her BINGO earnings. She even took part in one of the Mrs. Lincoln Court pageants.

We were able to have her 80^th Birthday Party there in the activity room. She had loads of guests. It was a very nice occasion.

I know she was a lot healthier at Lincoln Court than she would have been on her own. She was on state aid, as well as social security and was able to get her health checks and medication taken care of. They really looked out for her and helped her stay healthy. I know that, all in all, her quality of life was much better in that environment than on her own.

          I understand from Elaine that the final surgery was definitely her undoing. She had struggled for so long with her hips and an orthopedist thought one more surgery would help. She was 84. I guess she came through the surgery okay. There were several people in her room when she came back and she stayed awake somewhat until everyone left. Elaine was the last to go. As she said goodbye, Mom said something about how glad she was, because she needed to rest. Elaine says that’s the last coherent thing Mom said.

          Later that week, she was transferred across the street to the Idaho Falls Care Center. She remained there, very much in pain, until she passed on March 26, 1998.

*****

The remainder of the book is notes written by Mom about her husband Ross and each of us Children. There are some notes from me and part of the tribute Elaine did at Neal’s funeral.