it's thanksgiving~

every year at about this time I start to think about my grandmother

irene isabelle (hardwick) baldwin.

she was born on November 25th, so celebrating her birthday at 

thanksgiving was special.
like her.

I've written about her before, but i'm going to go back a bit further

and tell you more about her life. (*these memories are my own... 

if my family is reading this and has corrections please leave them in the comments section). : )

irene was born in 1913, the 5th of the 6 children born

to dora (cordeman) hardwick and james oliver hardwick.

dora and james had 5 daughters and one son.

edith

earl

leona

evelyn

irene

& opal

my great grandmother dora died of pneumonia quite young leaving her husband,

a farmer in central minnesota, with no one to help with his children.

this led my great grandfather to marry not one,

but 2 mail order brides from the southern part of the 

united states.

i used to love when my gram told my sister and i stories about her childhood.

some of the things I remember are that the children were expected to work hard and their father

was a stern disciplinarian. there was NO talking allowed at the

dinner table, he believed children were to be seen and not heard. 

she told us that their life was happy and playful when her mother was alive, but

all that changed with the 2 stepmothers. they weren't nice to the children and

i'm guessing they were probably overwhelmed by moving so far from their families
and living in the frigid north country + having all those children to take care of.
*both the mail order brides

ended up divorcing my g. grandpa and they got most of his money,
leaving him quite poor at the end of his life.

my grandma met my grandpa when she was 17.

her sister was dating a guy with a brother. They invited my gram to go on a double date
and the sisters ended up marrying those brothers!
(gram told us once that my grampa was "the catch of the county". )

eventually my grandparents found themselves expecting a baby and
even though they were young, they were in love and had a baby on the way so they

married and started their life together.

they went on to have 6 more children, including a set of twins of which my

mother was one.

my grandpa was a farmer and they rented a big 

two story farm house on the banks of a river.

can you imagine how our generation would feel if we had no running water
or indoor bathrooms,
if we had to raise most of our food and wash clothes with
a ringer washing machine, with no dryer?

can you imagine how many potatoes my gram must have peeled to feed her 

family of 9 all those years?

it seems like a hard life but when my gram told us stories of those years

she was never complaining. i always felt

like she loved her life. i remember her saying that her sisters, (who were her best

friends) would tell her that they felt soooo sorry for her with all those kids but

she loved having a big family.

in 1966 my grandparents lost one of their 30 year old twins (my mother) to a brain tumor.

 that left me, my sister and two young brothers with no parents.

(my dad had deserted our family) and suddenly my grandparents had to decide

who was going to raise the 4 young children.

it turned out that they decided they would raise my sister (9) and i (7), and

one of my gram's nieces adopted my two little brothers who were

4 and 18 months.

although my mom had been very ill for a few years, her death was not expected.

my gram was 53 years old and her youngest son still lived at home and farmed with my

grandpa and now all of a sudden they had 2 more children to raise.

~ seriously.

 my grandparents were strict  (down right scary at times-truth be told)

and they expected obedience from my sister and i, but they also provided the

structure and stability we surely needed after we'd lost our mother.

so here they were with 2 more girls.
2 girls who weren't going to be any help in the field or milking cows.
*our uncle paul nicknamed us "the  houseplants".     : )))

 2 more girls that were going to need acne cream and tampax,
bras and braces,
prom dresses and class rings.

they worked hard their whole lives and never had a lot of money.
my grama ended up a widow living on nothing
but her social security check.
all $200 and some dollars a month!
 she never talked about money or complained
or ever appeared to want what anyone else had though.

my gram loved her simple life.
she went to church and she gardened.
she refinished a ton of furniture. she sewed and knit and made quilts. she fed the birds.
she had a dog to keep her company-
(she had no time for cats btw),
she had a fun group of girlfriends and a great big family
that loved and admired her.

she could whip up a meal to feed surprise company with nothing
but a can of beans and a lemon.
(i kid) but she really did continue to feed us all the most delicious meals,
right up until she left us too soon, at the age of 73.

gram's life was certainly not without struggles and heartache, after all she lost her
mother when she was young and a beloved daughter (and that was
just the biggest hurdles they overcame.)
she wasn't perfect-she was human- but she was one tough cookie who focused
on her blessings.

gram said many times that she felt like she was already in heaven
here on earth, because of the life she'd been given.

 how absolutely wonderful is that?

it's thanksgiving week and like most of you i am just more consciously
aware of what i am thankful for right now. i read an article in a magazine
(magnolia journal) that really started to churn up memories of the life i had
with my gram and gramps and all the subtle ways they taught us to appreciate
the little things.


family is our greatest blessing.

if you have people to love, that love you back, you
have what the whole world is longing for.

i have been blessed and hope you feel that way too.

happy thanksgiving dear ones,

xo, beth

this is my beloved gram, holding my precious baby girl on the day she was born.
this woman started out as my grandma, but became my mother and even though it's been 31 long years since she left us, the treasured memories
of her are stuck fast in my soul.