She was known by Rita from the time she met my father until she passed on April 21, 1985.
She was the youngest of four children
Helen Christine Born May 15, 1910 D. 7-12-2000
Fredrick David Born March 22, 1915 D. 12-01-1999
Merritt Dean Born Feb. 10, 1920 D. 10-07-1991
The picture on the left was her as a child. She and her brother Dean were close since there was only three years difference in their ages. She always told the story about the duck plate that hung on their grandmother Stella's wall.
When they would go to visit her, my mother would point up and say,
"cock-a-doo" and Dean would say, "no silly, that is a duck".
But being the hard headed little Dutchman that she was, she would stomp her foot and say,
"uh-uh it's a cock-a-doo".
I have that plate, it is over a hundred years old.
The picture of mother in the middle is how she looked when she went to stay with Helen in Chicago. The year was 1941. She had been living at home with her parents in southern Illinois, a place some refer to as Horse Creek. The guy she was suppose to marry was in the army. He got killed in an accident.
His rifle went off as he was jumping onto the back of a truck.
Everyone thought it would be good for her to get away for a time.
This is when she met up with my father.
When she found out I was on the way they moved to Springfield.
They stayed together until I was sixteen. I got married in August, mother left a few months
later.
The last picture is her on the beach in the Florida Keys. I went up and got her in the winter of 1983.
She stayed with us in Big Pine Key until June of 1984.
