May 2, 1926 my mother was born. She was the 6th child in a family of 7 children. There were 5 girls and 2 boys. All but 2 are now gone. My mother’s father immigrated from Ukraine because of religious persecution. My mother’s mother was from Beatrice, Nebraska. They were of the Mennonite faith.
This is their wedding picture. They lived on the farm all of their married lives. My mom never worked in the field but always made sure there was food taken to the field for the noon meal and then later in the afternoon. In the evening, around 9 p.m. the hired help and my dad would come in and Mom would always have something for them to eat. She is a great cook.
My mother always made everything that my sister and I wore, from our coats and caps to our dresses, slacks, whatever it was, she made it. She use to make draperies for other ladies in the area where we lived.
I remember my mom taking us on vacations to California to see her parents. They moved there before my mom and dad were married. We always had a good time there. We would drive through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona and it was so hot. When my sister was only 6 months old, we took the train from Oklahoma to California. I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember that I was glad to get off of it. My dad didn’t go with us because he stayed at home and farmed. A farmers work is never done.
Since my dad was a farmer, he was always looking for better ways to farm the land. Here he and my mom are receiving an award for something that he did on the land. This was in the late 1950’s, can’t you tell. We always had a big garden and canned or froze everything we grew. We had enough to last us all year long. We also butchered our own chickens, cattle and hogs for our meat. We were very self-sufficient and we always made our own bread too. Every Saturday my mom would bake bread and pies and cakes. She made a German bread every Saturday called “Zwiebach”. With a last name like Schmidt, you couldn’t help but make good German food.
This is my mom today. I wish there were more pictures of her growing up but sadly there aren’t.
She wears hearing aids because her hearing was damaged while working in a factory. Farmers don’t make much money so she had to go to work and help support our family. Both my sister and I went through school and received good educations thanks to my mom and dad.
Thanks Mom for all you did for our family and raising my sister and myself. You did a good job. You have 2 daughters, 3 granddaughters and 5 great grandchildren. You have done well.
Happy Birthday and May You Have Many More!!!
Thanks for sharing my mother’s birthday with me.
Blessings everyone ♥♥♥
