Today she would have been 92.

Yeppers, today would have been my Grandmother's birthday, so, I thought I would put a little something, something, on my blog for her. It seems strange that I was just at her funeral a month ago. Anyway, I'm going to type what was on the back of her memorial card from her funeral and I'll add a few of my memories as I go. It's going to be a mish-mosh of facts and random blabbering. Hey, it's what I'm known for. I have to do this quick so I'm sure it will be loaded with typos. Ignore them...I know I have told you this before. Anyway, here we go...
Martha Arvelia (Vogt) Slater passed away on Sunday, March 8th at the age of 91 years. She was born April 8, 1916 at Courtney Missouri, the youngest child of Charles Sr. and Olga Johanna Caroline (Frahm) Vogt. Her Father (my Great Grandfather) passed away at the age of 34 from the Spanish Influenza of 1918. Grandma often remarked that she remembered sitting and playing on her Father's bed while he was ill. Funny side story about the first picture. The writing on the back of the picture said, "The Baby holding a baby pig. It now weighs 100 pounds." We had a good chuckle over that as we wondered whether Great Grandma Olga meant the Baby weighed 100 lbs or the pig.}
In 1919, at the age of 3, she moved with her Mother and siblings to Liberty, Nebraska. They rode the train up and she remembered her oldest brother Charlie running to the front of the train so he could be the first to be in Nebraska. Her Uncle Siegfried Frahm, made a home for the family. { Second photo, Right to Left: Charles Jr, Amelia, Nevora, Marvin, Martha Vogt} Martha attended three different country schools, graduating 8th grade from Distirct 76. She attended Lincoln High School in Lincoln Nebraska, graduating in June of 1936. She often told me how she used to rollerskate to High School, right past the Nebraska State Capital Building. She was also a HUGE Nebraska Football fan and would go to the games and watch from the old knot-hole section.
{ Third Picture: If you know my sister, you will see how much Tisha and our Grandma Martha looked alike. It's really remarkable. I can't even tell you how many people made comments at the funeral about their resemblance. We had a display of old pictures of Grandma and this picture in particular caught everyones attention. Actually, once our Grandma Kaster was visiting our house and she took a look at a black and white picture sitting in a frame on a little table and asked when "that picture was taken of Tisha." She was shocked when we told her it was actually a picture of Grandma Slater. In 1940 Grandma Martha started working for Dr. Boyer at the Pawnee City Hospital as a nurse's aide for 3 1/2 years. During this time she helped deliver babies and kept a record of the ones she helped deliver and cared for. She was very porud of this book and would gladly drag it out and show anyone who was interested in seeing it. The clipping is from the local papers "letters to the Editor" section following Grandma's funeral and was written by one of the babies she helped deliver.

On February 9, 1944 She was married to Virgil D. Slater, at her Mother's home in Mission Creek, near Summerfield Kansas. To this family two sons were born, Cecil and Richard, and one daughter, Mildred "Millie". Not everyone knows that when my Mom was a little girl, Grandma had an allergic reaction to some medication she was on and her kidneys shut down. She was in hospital in Omaha for several months and they were not sure she'd pull though but she's always been a tough old bird. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa made their home on a farm south of Pawnee City, until they moved to town on January 12, 1964. Grandma Martha and Grandpa Virgil always made time to get together with friends or relatives to play cards or Aggravation. They had so many card parties that they kind of meld together in my memory. I'd crawl under the table and play with a toy while they bid and argued. If I was quiet and down there long enough, I'd get to hear a dirty joke that Grandpa or one of the other men would tell. I can still hear them laughing and teasing each other. Between 1961 and 1967 Martha filled in at the school lunch room and she also worked at the Gordon Home, when they needed extra help. In 1966 she started working at the Pawnee Manor and continued there for 18 years, retiring in 1984. Grandpa Virgil's health started going downhill, so she cared for him until his death in May of 1987.
In March of 1993, she fell and severaly broke her ankle. At that time, she decided to check into the Pawnee Manor and make it her home. She whiled away her time, doing crossword puzzles, word searches, crocheting, making crafty things and helping the ladies by folding towels, peeling potatoes, or anything they needed help with. She really enjoyed her time at the Manor, kept busy, visited with everyone. Often, when I visited her...we'd check her out and pay a visit to some old card party friends or just drive around and look at how the town was changing. For many year she kept on the go, and wasn't slowed down until her mind started to fail her. Grandma had always had a memory for birthdates, full birth names, maiden names, when and where things had occured. Looking back now, it was amaizing how much she had locked away in that brain. Eventually she had trouble keeping her past and present seperate. There were times she swore that nobody told her that her Sister had passed away even though she had attended the funeral, or she still thought her Mother was alive, even though Great Grandma Olga passed away when I was 2 years old. It never bothered me that she would repeat herself over and over. I used it to my advantage. If she laughed at my comment the first time around, I'd try to get a bigger laugh the second or third time. She couldn't help it, and as long as she was happy, it didn't bother me.

My Memories of Grandma revolve around her floating back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room table where they played games. She'd have some kind of Oomp Pa pa music on the radio, lots of polka and strange Bohemian songs in languages I didn't know. She made the best Candied Sweet potatoes and knowing how much I liked those things, she'd make them no matter how warm it was out. She loved the color red. She had red dining room curtains and a red area rug. She had a crazy wall paper that had red in the design. At Christmas she hung big red bells in the windows that would light up. I wonder if that is part of the reason that my Mom (Grandma's daughter) dislikes red so much. Grandma had a collection of plates from many of the states she visited. I wish I would have kept them all but the only one I have is the one she got from Kentucky...the state I was born in. Ofcourse, I was supposed to get all the windchimes that hung in the doorways of their house. I used to run in circles through the house, jumping up and tapping the chimes as I went. My goal was to keep them ringing...always ringing. The chimes were unusual and were supposed to be put aside for me but were accidently sold when Grandma auctioned off her stuff when she decided to stay at the manor for good. When I hear the racket of chimes in the wind, I think of Grandma.
In the evenings, when the weather was clear, Grandma and Grandpa would sit in lawn chairs in the front yard. People would drive by and wave, some would stop by to chat. They knew everyone. To this day, on a hot, humid evening with the strong smell of freshly cut grass on the breeze, I can almost hear their voices and laughter again and it makes me want to spin around in circles until I'm so dizzy that I fall over and lay on my back in the cool grass, watching the trees and the clouds spin, while chiggers snack on me like I was a juicy desert. In some respects, that sums up Nebraska to me. When I step of the plane after being away for a long time, I feel that same joy, that same simple content feeling. That's what home feels like to me. It's a friendly, place filled with the people that I love and all the simple things in live that make life worth savoring. You have to be careful though or you will be eaten alive...lol.
I can tell you right now what went down as Grandma stepped across those pearly gates. Everyone was there to greet her. Family, Friends, all of her siblings, her parents,and husband... Grandpa Virgil in his striped overalls, even some of those pet dogs they had over the years. They laughed and chatted the hours away, saying things like, "Oh my, its been ages!", "You certainly took your sweet time getting here.", and "We've been waiting for you so we could get a game of cards going." They will ask how she's been. In typical Grandma fashion she will say, "Oh, I can't complain." Even though the last few years were very hard on her. She told them all that Mildred (my Mom) was with her when she passed and how much that meant to her. She told everyone that she lasted long enough to be able to see her first Great Grand child, Rue Carrington Kuhl, Tisha's baby. They will all agree that they need to keep an eye on that little girl, because she's going to be a real handful as she gets older. Then they all settled down to a long card party with breaks for snacks and laced with a story or two. You know, I have a funny feeling the cards are being shuffled and dealt out at this very moment. I have no doubt about it.

I was lucky. When I was born, I had all my Grandparents and two Great Grandparents still alive. I had many years with them. They are all gone now and Grandma Slater was the very last of them. I had 37 years with her. I'd say I was lucky indeed.