My girlhood memories of my Aunt Emma are many. I spent time at her home during the summer months and was always amazed at how many different things she accomplished...
She had a fairly large property, and every square inch of it showed her loving touch. She had a large vegetable garden, and fruit trees, and berry bushes and plants. She raised a few chickens. Her yard included flowers of many kinds, including a lily pond with goldfish in it. Her plants were perfectly groomed and seemed to flourish at her touch. Her home was immaculate... she was a true homemaker. She canned and baked and made pies to freeze, which she would use through the winter. Her home-canned dill pickles were the best! She sewed many of her own clothes and crocheted hats to wear, doilies, intricate, lacy table cloths, and even made large braided rugs for her home. Also, she raised canaries and sold them.
She was widowed from her first husband and then later remarried. In her retirement years she began to babysit children during the day (somtimes as many as six at a time), and by doing this she helped to pay off the little home they had bought. A few years later she was widowed a second time.
What an amazing lady! She was crippled from a fall she had had early in life, and one leg was shorter than the other. But she never let it slow her down in any way. Now alone for a second time, she would still "prosper". She raised canaries, violet plants, tomato plants and geraniums, and then when they were in their prime she would put an ad in the "Nickel Ads" Newspaper and sell them. This way she had some extra spending money.
At age 88 Emma was tending flowers in her garden one day and was bitten by a brown recluse spider. The pain and itching were excruciating and ongoing, and she never found relief until she went home to be with the Lord at age 92. But even during these last few years she was never idle. She said that each day she would pray for every member of her family and for all the relatives whose names she knew. She loved the Lord and was a very remarkable woman.
"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."
Proverbs 31:29 KJV
© 2010 Arlene Schwartzkopf