Posted 06 March 2009 - 02:19 AM
Bethdarlene, please send a note to me off-line (only_kman@yahoo.com). I am Letitia's grandson and I'm wondering who you are!
To all who read this thread,
A couple of corrections. Letitia passed away on Sunday, February 22, 2009. She died peacefully and with grace. Her son and surviving daughter were with her. I had the privilege of saying goodbye and wishing her a good journey a few hours before she left this earth.
While the pipes freezing story makes good press (and the reporter meant well), he embellished the story a bit. Grandma never went down into the basement, nor could she have turned off the water valve if she wanted to. Her son told me he himself could barely turn the valve. That said, it's exactly the Attitude my Grandmother had toward life and one could easily imagine her doing exactly what was in the article.
Grandma was a farm wife, an avid gardener, a devout Christian, and a political conservative. She LOVED people and had an unshakable faith in humankind despite all of its faults. Naive as it may sound, she firmly believed that the world's problems could be solved if people showed some love toward each other. I'm convinced she was right. She loved her family and friends and kept track of most of them until it got too much to send out cards and well wishes. One never started a political or philosophical argument with her unless one's arguments were well thought out -- she would win almost every time and teach you something constructive in the process.
Grandma ate well -- balanced meals all of the time. We joked that she never realized she wasn't on the farm feeding a hungry husband and hired hands because the table was always well stocked. Meals were simple meat/potatoes/vegetable/dessert affairs with lemonade or milk. She enjoyed a cup of coffee in the morning and always had a cookie jar full for the taking (usually my second stop in her house after giving Grandma a hug).
She never wore a hat outside while gardening in town. She may have while working on the farm and almost certainly did when she was growing up since that would have been the custom for young ladies at the turn of the century. Exercise was a given for her. She mowed her own lawn into her 90s (electric mower and it wasn't a huge lawn) and scooped her own snow. She had someone else till the garden but she did the planting, hoeing and weeding herself. She was always active but finally gave in to using a walker to help maintain her balance walking around the house. She never drank or smoked. At a doctor's appointment a few weeks before her death, her BP was something on the order of 117 over 60. She never needed maintenance medication -- an occasional aspirin was all she took.
She was a teacher (by education and practice) and a philosopher. I, personally, believe her life was extended because she had a purpose on this earth: namely, to teach. She educated the local school children who would visit as part of class. She never tired of explaining her life and what it was like to grow up and grow old; what it was like to see the technological changes; what it was like to live through wars, the depression, the dust bowl, and all of the good times as well. All this she passed on to 4 additional generations of relatives and countless acquaintances and strangers. She could quote poetry, hymns, bible verses, etc. that were so obscure many scholars wouldn't have known them. Her mind was sharp but her body finally failed her. She had few regrets although she felt she would have liked to learn to use a computer and in her 90's wished she had had cataracts removed sooner (she never figured on making it that long, so why bother?).
It was a privilege and an honor being her grandson and sharing in a life extremely well lived.
Keith Kutz
Ames, Iowa
