June 2, 2014....Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Mom & Dad's wedding day, 1921

5 items:

1.   Today would be my mother's 117th birthday, were she alive.  She was born in Altengeseke, Westphalen, Germany, on June 2, 1897, and she was the last of her parents' 7 children.  Her siblings were Josef, Anna, Anton, Teresia, Heinrich, and Adam.  Her dad was Josef Redder-Piek, and her mother's maiden name was Maria Anna (or Anna Maria) Groblinghof, who died in 1899.  In 1903, the rest of the family all moved to Iowa. Grandpa was a farmer and also a baker while in Germany.  In the U.S., he was a farmer only. He never remarried.  He died before I was born--when my brother
Paul was a baby.  

2.  I bought a bottle of Lambrusco tonight and raised my glass to mom.  The (first and) last time we
shared a bottle of wine at the lake, it was lambrusco.  We sat in the kitchen and talked, mostly about
her life in Harlingen, Texas, in the winters.  She had a lot of fun in Harlingen--singing in a choir, travelling with her friends and neighbors into Mexico, eating cabrito and other Mexican delicacies. Two guys, both retirees from Canada, wanted to marry her, but she turned them down.  One of them owned a chain of movie theaters and claimed to be a relative of Henry VIII. 

3.  Mom was a great cook, though our meals were simple.  One thing I loved was her potato pancakes, which she cooked when dad was out of town and we could bypass the meat that he loved. 

4.  Mom loved the flowers she planted around the outside of the house.  On the north side of the house, she always planted lilies of the valley.  she said they grew wild in the valleys near her home
in Germany, and she loved the fragrance.  I did, too.  She'd make a bouquet and place them in a glass vase or bowl on the dining room table. 

5.  Mom had been a teacher before she married Dad, and she taught me how to read when I was just a sprout--maybe 3 or so
.  Maybe that was a way for her to get a little free time to herself in the afternoons. I loved to read--and still do.