Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Laoma Grube will celebrate her 80th birthday. I have spent many happy moments with this lady. The following is a copy of the letter I wrote for her memory book.

Dear Laoma

“Our family has the most treasured memories of you and your family. It’s a pleasure to call you on the phone and pick you up to come to our home for supper. I love to have you at my kitchen table. We can talk about anything. I feel you completely understand us and have our best interest at heart. I look at you for guidance because I know you have been on the path of life for a long while and know the best way to go. I am at home with you and feel a comfort when you set at my table. I know I don’t need to dress up in your presence; I can be my self with you. If you don’t come when Rodney and Crystal visit I feel something is missing.

“It is an honor to our family when you come to our home on Christmas Eve because I know you have lots of other places you could go. All year I look forward to that exciting evening. It’s my favorite day of the year. You are making wonderful memories for our family being with us. I remember lots of good gatherings at Rodney and Crystal’s house on the farm in the old days. I was always happy when I walked in that kitchen and saw you sitting at the table. Though we are a different age group I enjoyed the conversation we shared then when my children were little. I can see it now today, you at the kitchen table and Albert in the living room with the men wearing white shirts and dress pants; and Crystal and your daughter-in-laws fixing and getting the meal on the table; you and I helping dry the large stack of dishes; all the men talking about farming or whatever as the events of the day; and children running in and out depending on the weather. The noisy children were all happy to be together and mine right in the midst of them. Those were the days I long to return once again.

“I recall one Easter in the early 70’s when we were at Crystal’s home for the day. During the afternoon we all went outside to watch the children hunt Easter eggs in the clump of Pampas grass and among the thorny stems of what I call the Crystal Rose Bush by the yard gate. (A piece of that still grows and blooms by the yard post.) I have wonderful pictures of that day. All the children were so excited. It was a sunny day and the wind was blowing on that cool Nebraska day. There must have been 12 children all over Crystal’s yard.

“When we came to Bloomington to the old farm house it didn’t take long for your family to become one of our best friends. From the first warm summer evening that Rodney stopped as he went by our farmhouse on his way home in about the year 1972. That late evening was spent talking on the hood of his car by the sidewalk under the elm trees, as the house was so hot due to no air-conditioning. From that time on I pursued this friendship for I knew it was a good and true friendship. Ever since that evening, we have been a part of your special family. The Lord send us where he wants us to be and in my heart there is no better place to be than spending time with all of you.

“Laoma, remember the day we picked green beans at the old house in the garden out by the windmill? I can still see you bending over in the garden. Preserving food then and now brings people together. You had on dark pants with a white top. I so wish I would have kept a written account of each of those days but I have to rely on my memory for the scenes and the sounds of that time.

“I appreciated the many dinners you have fixed for us. It’s fun to go to your house too. You and your family always make sure we have a place to go for each holiday dinner. I had been known early on to invite myself to your family gatherings. Of course, I do that in a casual way such as ‘Crystal what are you doing for Easter?’ Then she always responds with the invitation. But I tell the world that I knew I was really accepted into this family when I was invited to the Grube picnic. Later Laoma told me some of the people in the park that day asked why Rena was there. Laoma replied, “She is like on of the family.”

To this farmyard of our friends Rodney and Crystal I love to go, I never feel I need to be invited. Sometimes I just have to make a swing through the yard of my friends, even when I know they aren’t home; just to get a look at the old farmstead. Sometimes I park for just a minute and relive the old days. I look at the barn and still see the family doing the chores with my family there too. I was useless help but offered encouragement by saying this is a great place to be. Even though the barn isn’t heated it takes on special warmth when I enter it mentally. I am surrounded and covered with the smells of hay and cows’ milk and memories of voices overhead.

“Laoma, I appreciate you for wanting to be with us and our family. I so enjoy the peaceful feeling of you in our home. I welcome you to come any day of the Year. You create a calmness in my life. It’s just your patient nature to promote well being in all of us. Once again, on Easter March 31, 2002 we are invited, to spend the day with our extended family, the Grubes and Frerichs. Once again, Laoma, I will sit at the table and talk with you of the week’s events while family gets the noon meal on and many many children run in and out and play. Once again I say on this day, this year, there is no other place I would rather be than with you on your 80th birthday. Laoma, you wanna help hide Easter eggs? How about I pick you up this week to come over for dinner? Love Rena and Family.”

Two kinds of gratitude the sudden kind we feel for what we take.
The large kind we feel for what we give. Unknown.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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