#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 34, Challenged by Tragedy

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 34, Challenged by Tragedy

Challenged by Tragedy

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

Stories about overcoming challenges born from tragedy warm my heart when I discover those traits in the tales of my maternal ancestors; I inherited the gift of seeing the light amidst the darkness.   One day I will write the “Cynthia Chronicles,” but on this day, I will highlight some challenges born of tragedies from my direct maternal line.  Now, follow photos of six generations: 

Mom and Me

My Mother Rose Arlene Miller

Rose Miller age two, with Ruby King Miller

Anna Schulz King

Barbara Wagner Schulz

My mother, Rose Miller, was born the third of June 1920 in Northwood, Iowa.  Her father, Coy Clifton Miller, was a southerner whose work as a train dispatcher brought him to Albert Lea, Minnesota about 1914.  Her mother, Ruby Anna King, was a telegraph operator working in Albert Lea.  As fate would have it, they fell madly in love!  They married the sixteenth of October, 1916, in Albert Lea.  The Millers had a stillborn boy in March of 1918; Rose was their second child.  The Millers lived with Ruby's mother, Anna Schulz King, on South Eighth Street in Northwood when Rose was born.  I have no doubt the birth of baby Rose was a great comfort to Anna because she was recently widowed;  her husband, Harry King, died in June of 1919.  When Rose was a year old, her parents transferred to Ennis, Texas where two more daughters, Betty Jean and JoAnn were welcomed into the happy, young family.

Aunt Rose King with Rose Miller

Tragedy struck the Miller household on many fronts in the midst of the Great Depression.  What is worse for children than having a sick mother?  A mother's death, that surely is the worst thing imaginable to small children.  In February of 1932, Ruby Anna King Miller contracted pneumonia.   She was treated with horse serum [1]used as an antibiotic.  Ruby had an allergic reaction to the horse serum and died that night.   I see the pain on the face of my mother in the photo taken the day of the funeral.   Notice the beret she is wearing.  I learned from aunt Fran that she wore that beret every day through high school.  

Rose Miller after her mother's funeral

My mother was twelve years old when her mother died in1932.  That same year she contracted idiopathic epilepsy,[2]  Idiopathic means of unknown origin.  Rose struggled with grand mal and petit mal seizures throughout her life.   While yet living in Ennis, Texas, she was hit in the back of the head with a miniature golf club and spent several days in a Dallas hospital with a concussion.  Later, she began having petit mal seizures; her aunt Retha thought to they were means for getting attention; Retha punished Rose by locking her in a closet.   Rose had her first grand mal seizure playing girls basketball in Mena. The move to Northwood, Iowa followed soon afterwards. 

Initially, the Northwood, Iowa Board of Education refused to allow Rose to enter public school because of her epilepsy.  Her step-grandfather, J. L. Painter, was on the school board and he insisted the school board allow her to test; she passed the school admittance exams at age 14 with such high scores she was allowed to skip the eighth grade. Rose graduated with the Class of 1937 at age 17.    

Rose married the same year.  On October 5, 1937, Rose and her high school sweetheart, Ervin Gelnor Vold (nicknames: Ole/Paul, depending on friend or family) were on a car ride with friends when they decided to elope in Cresco, Iowa.  

Rose’s husband, Ervin Gelnor Vold, was born March 7, 1915 to Sithone "Susan" Turvold and Carl Otto Vold. The family farm was located three miles south of Northwood, Iowa. Dr. E. H. Dwelle delivered the baby boy (Source: Iowa Births).

The disease created many other limitations, such as not being able to obtain a drivers license or earn an R.N. degree.  But she wasn’t stopped from excelling as a life-long student.  She was an avid reader and a warm, loving mother.  As an adult, she graduated from Glendale Community College in Glendale, California.  She went on to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse, and later a  medical transcriber working at UCLA Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, California.  Tragically, epilepsy won; Rose suffocated in a Grand Mal seizure on the tenth of February 1984, at the young age of sixty-three.   With my mother no longer living, I asked my maternal aunts, her sisters, for memories of their mother, Ruby Anna King Miller.  

The Merry Miller Sisters: Jo, Betty and Rose

Memories of Ruby Anna King Miller

Ruby Anna King was born the sixteenth of June 1898 in Orchard, Iowa to Harry Bernard King and Anna Schulz King; she died at thirty-three years, seven months and twenty-four days in Ennis, Texas, from a reaction to horse serum given for the treatment of pneumonia. 

1915 Iowa State Census

Anna Schulz King 

Ruby, Ruth and Rose King

It was a mournful day when Ruby was buried near Ennis, Texas during the depression without a headstone. It was not until 1994 that her two daughters, JoAnn Miller Eid and Betty Miller Francis purchased the headstone for her grave.  I was delighted to visit that new gravestone with aunt Betty and uncle George Francis. 

Memories of My Mother

By Betty Jean Francis (Miller)

I was born in Ennis, Texas, to loving parents Ruby Anna Miller (King) and Coy Clifton Miller. We lived on 808 North Sherman Street. This home consisted of two bedrooms, a bath and separated by a hall from a living room, formal dining room, and a large kitchen. I remember a piano in the living room which my mother played.

My Mother hired help for cleaning the house and helping cooking. She hired two black women (called 'colored' in those segregated days). I wish I could remember their names as they were very loving to us girls. The woman who helped with the housecleaning also took care of us when Ruby Anna played bridge. Ruby had a small china closet in the dining room full of prizes she won. I believe my grandmother and my Aunt Retha had some of those items after my mother's death. The other woman washed the clothes outside in a huge black pot. She started a fire underneath the black pot, which was filled with wash water and soap. She used a pole to stir the sheets around the hot water. It was very fascinating to watch. A screen surrounded the washing pot. Sometimes my mother would carry the ironing to the woman who helped with housekeeping. I stayed and played with the children of the woman who helped clean.  My mother would go shopping and then return to pick me up. Those were memorable days.

If I ever needed discipline, Ruby would send me outside for a switch.  Naturally, I came back into the house with a twig. She laughed and chased me around the dining room table, caught me and gave a hug with a warning to behave. She also explained many things. I was never spanked.  If we needed talking to, the talking room was the bathroom. We were never punished in front of our siblings. One day while cutting up a chicken, she found some small eggs that were formed. She explained to me how these small things became eggs that the hen would lay in a nest.

Also, I remember Ruby nursing my sister, JoAnn.  Ruby explained why and how this phenomenon happened.  After nursing, I was allowed to give the new baby a ride in the buggy. I also remember her lovely fingernails with perfect white tips.

Ruby Anna died at age 32.  I was eight years old.  This was very devastating and tragic. I remember sitting in the living room with lots of people. Someone came in and said my Mother wanted to see us girls. We went into the bedroom. She had arms outstretched to us and we ran to her and she hugged us.  She died that same night. I missed her very much.  When I was an adult and gave birth to my own children I missed her again.

Betty Miller in Ennis, Texas

Betty adored her family; losing Laura was a terrible tragedy

Vivacious Betty Miller Francis with Grandson Noah

Memories of My Mother
By JoAnn Miller Eid

I was so young when my Mother passed away. So many things that I wish I could remember.  Such as watching Mother doing everyday things, to feel her touch on my body, the love I missed growing up, her protecting me from so many different happenings in life, my graduation from 8th grade and high school and the void that I experienced without her.

There are little things that I have been told about Mother. She did not like her picture taken after having her children because she thought she should lose some weight. I have some pictures of Mother as a young girl and early in her marriage to my Dad. I sometimes look at those pictures and wish I could have known her through my growing up years and during my marriage to Otto, and having Terry and David remember their Grandma's love.

When I was older and living in Tucson, Arizona, my Dad was reminiscing with me about Mother. Dad told me Mother was very ill with pneumonia and laryngitis.  He was asleep after his shift as Dispatcher with Southern Pacific.  Our regular doctor was not available.  Mother had two doctors attending her. They wanted to give her a shot of Horse Serum (used as medicine at that time and could only be administered once every two years). Mother had a shot within the last two years and tried to get the doctors to wake up Dad to help her.  Mothers laryngitis prevented her from communicating with the doctors and they felt she was just nervous over the process. The doctors gave her the Horse Serum, and she passed away due to the serum and her weakness due to pneumonia.

There are times I bring out the pictures of Mother and wish for memories I will never have.  I wish I could hug and kiss my Mother and wish that I could have had a Mother and Daughter relationship.  I love my Mother and still think of her.  JoAnn Miller Eid  

JoAnn Miller Ennis, Texas

Aunt Rose, Grandma Anna, JoAnn in Northwood

JoAnn Miller Movie Star with director John Huston

Legally Blind, JoAnn Miller Eid Golfs!

+++

Thanks to the longevity of aunt Betty who passed away at age ninety-four, and aunt JoAnn whose ninety-first birthday I recently celebrated, I marvel at how they, too, overcame tragedy meeting life as a challenge!  Thanks be to God!

Aunt JoAnn and me!  

---

[1]https://www.jstor.org/stable/41978053?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

[2]https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/professionals/about-epilepsy-seizures/idiopathic-generalized-epilepsies