Mom's estate

I've been working toward clearing the contents of mom's home for a couple of weeks.  Some of the items I've sold are family pieces.  Before you gasp in shock, you need to know that I have saved for myself several family pieces, my brother has several family pieces, and my children and Raymond's children have had an opportunity to choose family pieces for themselves.  I encourage you to read blog posts by Julie Hall, The Estate Lady, as her advice has been invaluable to me.

Family members included in this post:

• Ruth Elma Harder Cole
• Cyrus Walter "Walt" Ferguson
• Della Cole Owens Young
• Irene Orvetta Cole Schnack Speer 
• Arthur "Art" Fred Owens
• Henry "Hank" D. Young
• Hazel M. McNeilly Ferguson
• Howard Cole
• Olive Letha Rose Schnack
• Raymond Cole Schnack
• Stephanie Marie Arsenault Hann

Mom told me that her mother bought the machine from Uncle Walt.  She told me that Uncle Walt used to repair sewing machines.  Uncle Walt was married to Grammy's aunt Hazel.  This Singer sewing machine model #66 is the machine my mother learned to sew on.  On this machine, she crafted her own wedding dress.  I still have the wedding dress...not sure what to do with it!  I used mom's veil to drape in and around old family wedding pictures framed especially to display at my daughter Stephanie's wedding recently.  Drat, I wish I had taken a picture of the display!  

Mom told me that this bed belonged to Aunt Della.  Della was my mom's paternal grand aunt.  When Della and her second husband were no longer able to tend their farm in Milford, New York, she sold it to my grandfather.  Della inherited the farm when her first husband died in 1938.  As a matter of fact, my grandfather lived briefly with his aunt Della and uncle Art and is listed on the 1925 New York State Census as a 12-year old student in that household.  The farmhouse was large as were many houses of that time.  Della and her second husband Hank lived on one side of the house and grandpa's family lived on the other.  Although related, the two families had little interaction.  When Della died in 1970, her side of the house remained vacant. 

This is the sewing machine that my mom taught me to sew on when I was about 12-years old.  It's a Singer Slant-O-Matic.  I believe my mom bought the machine not long after 1957 (when the owner's manual was published).  My mom sewed many of our clothes and was fond of matching mother-daughter outfits.  She would also sew patches on my dad's uniforms and at times 'took in sewing' to earn a little extra money.  She also took in washing and ironing.  My dad would help with the laundry.  I only know this because its written in one of the letters from previous posts. My first sewing project was a brown, wide-wale corduroy jumper.  I remember every step of the process...mom wouldn't let me miss a beat!  I still have the jumper and the plastic 'chain' belt that rode the hip line.

I bought the recumbent bike for mom so she could keep up her exercise.  She and Raymond had been walking to the Stop sign and back every day.  When I say walk, I mean a very slow snail pace.  Mom wasn't walking so well and used an ambulator.  She could sit on the seat of the ambulator when she tired.  The Stop sign was one house down the street.  She would sometimes have the energy to walk back taking the long way which was one house up the street from her house.  On cold and rainy days she wasn't able to walk but still felt the need to move about.  Unfortunately, she never had a chance to use the recumbent bike.

Mom had trouble getting up so I bought her a lift chair.  It was wonderful for her.  And, as she wasn't sleeping in her bed anymore, this served as her bed in the fully reclined position.  Before she became totally bedridden, she had to be supervised anytime she was up and about.  To limit her activity, we would sometimes put her shoes on the other side of the room because she wouldn't get up without having her shoes on.  She never experienced a fall while trying to rise but we eventually had to use an alarm on the chair so we'd know when she attempted to get up.

Mom had this parlor table in the living room for many years.  It was placed in front of the window near the front door.  She kept framed photos on it and an old wash basin on the bottom shelf.  She said that Grammy kept it in her living room with flowers on it.

Ah, the Matterhorn.  This painting has hung on our walls for as long as I can remember.  Mom said she bought it from a door-to-door salesman when we lived in Germany.  It was his second time coming to her door that she purchased it.  When Raymond and I were very young, we took our tin horns to some of the oil paint and damaged the texture.  They had it repaired or repaired it themselves.  I don't remember the incident and I can't find any evidence of damage or repair.

I don't remember this rocker at all.  I think Mom brought it to Texas from Grammy's house in New York sometime in the 1990s.  She told me she had the seat re-caned but the whole piece looks refinished to me.  It's made of Birdseye Maple which I'm told is fairly rare these days.

This framed piece hung in mom's living room over the china cabinet.  She told me that it had been a wedding gift to Grammy.  Grammy and Grandpa were married in 1934.

Scrabble!  I don't know where this particular set came from but I remember many visits to Grandma Schnack's and playing Scrabble.  My cousins tell me that Grandma was especially fond of her games and nearly always won.  She didn't let sentimentality or grandchildren throw a game for her!

Recipes

 

It's been a year and a half since mom died.  It's time to clear her house of the contents. I won't say its been an easy task.  At times I am overwhelmed by the task as she saved everything and other times I am overwhelmed with feelings of loss.  Sometimes, I'm just overwhelmed with the thought that I don't know what I'm doing.  Julie Hall, The Estate Lady, has helped tremendously with her posts that I read.  See the link to her blog under the tab for Blogs I Follow.  She is simply amazing!

Some of the origins of the recipes are and their relationship to my mother:

• Aunt Lena was Lena Mae Carrington Rose, her husband's cousin's wife
• Aunt Roxey was Mildred Roxey McNeilly Perry, her maternal grand aunt
• Grandma Harder was Mary Jane McNeilly Harder, her maternal grandmother 

 

The next few recipes I include because they just seem so like my mom.

 My dad, Walter J. Schnack, had a favorite food.  It was peanut butter.  Yes, you'll remember that he wrote about peanut butter in one of the Vietnam era letters!  My mom used salted Spanish peanuts in the cookie recipe and the contrast of the salt and sugar was mouth-watering delicious!

A multi-generational family favorite is Unbaked Cookies.  I can remember making them so often that I didn't need to look at the recipe when preparing them!

And last of all, folded and tucked between dividers in mom's recipe box was this page torn from a magazine or pamphlet.  I don't know if its something she saved or someone else ahead of her but reading it made an impact on me.

A perfect prayer for an empty-nest mom and an aging mom.   I know my mom missed having me around once I was grown and had a family of my own.  I often miss my own daughters.  But, I am so very proud of what my girls have accomplished in their lives.  They are resourceful, intelligent, funny, beautiful, caring, and so much more.

My Father, Walter J. Schnack, 1969-1970

After a year in Vietnam, followed by a year at Fort Hancock*, New Jersey, my father received orders to Fort Hood, Texas.  We arrived in January 1969 to a house in Copperas Cove and no furniture.  My brother and I had the assignment of keeping an eye out for the moving van.  For days and days, we watched for that moving van!  We were sleeping in borrowed sleeping bags on borrowed lawn chairs.  We ate our meals seated on the floor.  We were living an adventure!  The moving van finally came and life settled in to work for the adults and school for me and my brother.  Come summer, we moved into quarters on Fort Hood.

The pictures below are all U.S. Army photographs and used by permission of  III Corps and Fort Hood Media Relations.  They don't really tell a story and they are not in any particular order but were simply a group of pictures I came across while going through a box of family memorabilia.

14 February 1969 Official Selection Portrait by James E. Wesolowski of Co. C, 142d Sig Bn, 24 ARMD

3 September 1969 The Army Times (front page)

 My mom, Irene Orvetta Cole Schnack sitting to the right of my father.

Retirement reception for 1SG Walter J. Schnack

*Fort Hancock was built in 1859 to defend New York Harbor.  It was decommissioned in 1974 and is now under the National Park Service.  Fort Hancock and its famous lighthouse might very well be the subject of a future post.

2x Great Grandmothers share diagnosis

Born thirteen years and worlds apart, my 2x great grandmothers had something in common.  Breast cancer.

Emeline Evelyn Palmer Cole was born 13 January 1861 in Delaware County, New York to Francis "Frank" Palmer and Hannah Washburn Palmer.  Emeline married Stephen Walter Cole about 1877.  She died of breast cancer on 3 December 1923 in Walton, Delaware County, New York.

Anna Catharina Margaretha Lewerenz Schnack  was born 16 Feb 1874 in Seth, Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to Johann Hinrich Lewerenz and Anna Maschmann Lewerenz.  Anna married Eduard Schnack on 10 November 1895 in Stellingen, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.  She died of breast cancer on 10 January 1925 in Oppenheim, Fulton County, New York.

Anna Lewerenz Schnack 1924

Cancer of any kind is a fearful diagnosis.   Until the 19th century, this cancer was not common.  Women simply didn't live long enough to develop breast cancer.  Families were large; women had early and frequent pregnancies and nursed their babies, which may have kept cancer rates low.

Generally, radical mastectomies were the standard course of treatment until the 1970s.  A radical mastectomy involved removing both breasts, lymph nodes, and much of the underlying chest muscles.  The results of these surgeries were often long-term pain and disability.

I don't know what treatments my great grandmothers went through.  I have only their death records to learn their cause of death.  Anna was first diagnosed about two years before her death; Emeline, about a year and a half.  Emeline's death record indicated that she had had an operation about a year before she died.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989.  She underwent a single breast mastectomy followed by years of pharmacological treatment.   I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.  I underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy followed by years of pharmacological treatment.

Visit Emeline at http://bit.ly/1aphO9U and leave her a flower if you do :-)

Visit Anna at  http://bit.ly/15I6LdB and leave her a flower if you do :-)

Visit Irene at http://bit.ly/19PPn89 and leave her a flower if you do :-)

The Year at Home

These pictures are a review of what life was like for my family while my father was in Vietnam.

In the back is my mother and her parents, Howard and Ruth Harder Cole.  My brother and I are in the front with three girls who I don't know.  This picture may have been taken before my father went to Vietnam.

 Myself, my father, and Raymond in our backyard at Ayer, Massachusetts.

 

 Looks like I baked a birthday cake but for whom I don't know.

Seated from left to right is Grandma Schnack, Irene Schnack, Elsie Schnack, Katie Jones, and Viv Cope.  Standing left to right is Grandpa Schnack, Eddie Schnack, Bob Jones, and Harry Cope.  The occasion is the celebration of my Grandparents 40th wedding anniversary.

 I didn't get to be a little Vietnamese girl for Halloween but dressed up in items not normally worn.  We celebrated Halloween in Milford that year.

 My mom dressed up as a farmer :-)

 Myself and Mrs. Quintella outside our apartment in Ayer, Massachusetts.

 Myself horsing around with Miss Allen and Mrs. Allen.

 Myself, my mom, and my brother.

 My mom watching the news at our apartment in Ayer, Massachusetts.

 Myself and Raymond in the lower right hand corner.

 Myself and Raymond going to school.

 My mom and a friend.

 My mom above and two below.

 Above, my grandparents Schnack, obviously at Christmas time, and below with Raymond and myself.

 This is the year I must have started playing clarinet.

Above and below are pictures taken at the Milford Cemetery at Christmas time.  My Uncle Don died in October of 1966 and was buried there.

I believe the pictures above and below were taken at my Aunt Margaret's home.  Above is, seated or kneeling on the floor, my Aunt Tina (Don's widow) and Uncle Gerry.  Seated in the red chair is my grandfather Cole, Raymond is leaning over Gerry, and standing from left is Grandma Cole holding my cousin Larry, myself, and Aunt Margaret.

 Above, clockwise from noon, is Uncle Gerry, Aunt Tina, Raymond, Grandpa Cole, Grandma Cole, Aunt Margaret, and myself.

 My Uncle Eddie and Aunt Elsie with cousins left to right, John, Barbara, Julie and David.

 My Uncle Bob and Aunt Katie with cousins Peggy, Cheryl, and Bobby.

 All the 1st cousins on the steps of Grandma and Grandpa Schnack's house.

 My brother, mom, and myself.

 Myself, above and below.

 Me and my brother playing King of the Hill in our backyard.

 Me and my mom at a diner with the Allens.

 Above and below are the results of a March snow storm.

 Above and below are myself again.

 My brother and I.

 Above and below, myself with a cutie patootie baby :-)

Myself and my brother.