I wasn't able to attend my Grandma's Funeral. Buuuut I did get to listen to it and LIVE. All of the music and talks were just amazing. I don't think a girl should have to attend a funeral 'alone'. Tyson was at work and I did have Lydia with me, I pulled up everyone's pictures as the program progressed and then the tears just began to flow and flow. She didn't know what to think at first, what on earth was the matter with her Mom, I was curled up on the couch in a blanket and she was snuggling with me. Then all of a sudden she started wiping away all of my tears. It was a sweet gesture. I love her.
For FHE a few weeks ago Tyson read parts of Aunt Peggy's talk and I drew pictures of main events in Grandma's live so they could learn more about her. Here is the talk:
Hanging on the wall of Mom’s room in the Grandview Nursing Home for 71/2 years and then in her the Hospital Auxiliary room the last 3 months has been a beautiful framed picture of the Savior with the inscription, “I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it.” This quote symbolizes Mom’s life. Her life was definitely not easy but she lived it in faith and joy centered on family, on service and on love .
June 21st, 1919 was Ingeborg Olesen Schow’s 37th birthday. This was a birthday she would never forget. It wasn’t to be an easy day for her but it was well worth it when the heavenly gift of a beautiful baby daughter was placed in her arms. This baby, Ethel Ruth Schow, was to share a birthday with her mother from that day on. She was loved and cherished by her Dad, George Sidney Schow, and her 4 adoring siblings: Celestia, Sidney, Virginia and Rex. The Schows were residing in Burley, Idaho at this time. George Sidney Schow had graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. degree in electrical engineering, which was quite a feat back in those days. But due to a severe eye condition which resulted in near blindness and being unable to read, he was sadly forced to leave this profession and try to find other work to support his family. They moved to a ranch in Idaho and then to a farm in Oregon. While in Oregon, they read in the Deseret News about President Edward J. Wood, the Cardston Temple President and Stake President. They felt impressed that Cardston, Alberta Canada, near the temple, was where they should move. With President Wood’s help they swapped farms with a farmer from Jefferson, Alberta. On November 17, 1921 in 30 below zero weather this family of 6 children, Paul being 41/2 months old, arrived in Canada without adequate clothing for this frigid land. Conditions were tough and a few years later they lost their farm in Jefferson due to economic conditions. By now they had 8 children with the births of two little boys, Mark and Fred. These were destitute times. The Schow family moved to Cardston where George was able to get the mail delivery bid and he delivered mail to the whole area of Beazer, Mountain View, Leavitt, Hillspring and Glenwood.
Ethel Ruth Schow was 6 years old when they made this move to Cardston. This was an exciting year for her as she started school. Right from the beginning she was a quick learner and excelled in her school work. The first parent teacher interviews came and Ingeborg went to school to see how Ethel was doing. Miss Meldrum, the grade one teacher said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a student named Ethel.” To Grandma’s surprise Mom did NOT like the name Ethel and on entering grade one had told her teacher that her name was RUTH and she was Ruth from that point on.
With a large family they had to be industrious. Grandpa Schow planted huge gardens, he had a big barn with lambs and chickens, a horse and a cow. Ruth learned early how to work. One of her main jobs was taking care of the “3 little boys”, Paul, Mark and Fred. She adored them and was a big part of their upbringing. She learned early how to cook and clean and to be frugal and trustworthy.
Mom was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on her 8th birthday. This was a day she would always cherish as she got to enter the Alberta Temple for the first time to be baptized in the beautiful baptismal font there. The gospel of Jesus Christ was of utmost importance in her life. She was taught well by goodly parents and she loved the gospel and even served as a Primary teacher and the Primary secretary while she was a teenager.
In Junior High she had N. Eldon. Tanner as her principal and she learned much from him. She loved high school and was always at the top of her class. She took school very seriously. As luck would have it the Woolf family moved into their neighborhood from Woolford and Lee Woolf and her became friends. They were like brother and sister as they walked to school together, rode bikes together and had lots of good talks. Mom loved the high school dances and activities and although she never participated much in sports she was a great spectator as she watched her brothers in all their sporting events. She became good friends with Winifred Smith from Mountain View and spent many wonderful times out on their ranch horse back riding and swimming in Beaver Dam. Mom had lots of friends and was a friend to everyone. These were great years. During high school her Dad traded something for a second hand typewriter for her. Little did he know the great worth this type writer would be in Mom’s life. There were no typing classes in high school so she taught herself how to type and would often do typing jobs for other people to earn a little money to help out the family.
After high school Mom attended Garbutt Business College in Lethbridge. She was forced to leave college in early spring as she was needed at home. There was no money for her to return in the fall so she practised her typing and shorthand at home and received her Business College Graduation Certificate. She wrote a letter to her junior high principal, N. Eldon Tanner, who was now the Minister of Lands and Mines in the Edmonton Provincial Government, inquiring about a job. He was able to get her a position in his department on the 5th floor of the government building as a secretary, so she moved to Edmonton. What a giant step for this small town girl. But to make the adjustment easier, who should already be working on the 3rd floor of the government offices but her good friend, Lee Woolf. These Edmonton years were the highlight of her life (until us kids were born of course). They were tutored by the greatest, having N. Eldon Tanner (who would one day become an Apostle) as their Branch President. They were a close knit group under his leadership and they had a strong social group of friends. It was war time and they had to make their own fun and this they did with many dances, parties, picnics and other activities. Mom began seeing Lee Woolf as more than a ‘friend’ during these Edmonton years. But she said she had to fight for her rights to be his girl friend as a couple of other girls were vying for his attention too. Because their boarding houses were close they became a twosome and went to shows together, ate lunch together and of course walked back and forth to work together. They were engaged the Christmas of 1940 while they were home for the holidays. The war atmosphere was getting serious so Lee joined the Army on May 16th, 1941 and went to Red Deer, Alberta to train. Mom continued working in Edmonton and he would get occasional overnight leaves to visit her. They set their wedding date for November 27, 1941. Mom ordered her wedding dress from the Eaton’s Catalogue for only $7.95. They made a striking couple in their wedding pictures with Mom in her regal white dress and Dad in his army uniform. They were sealed in the Cardston, Alberta Temple by President E. J. Wood. They had a lovely turkey wedding dinner in the Schow home and then they caught the bus at Fort McLeod for Calgary. They spent their honeymoon night at the Wales Hotel in downtown Calgary only to be greeted the next morning by the Cardston Chamber of Commerce who happened bo be staying at the same hotel for a meeting. They felt a bit awkward and embarrassed as they were on their honeymoon. They caught a bus to Red Deer to their first home which was a renovated chicken coop. Due to the huge influx of army recruits training in Red Deer, housing was tight. Some people who owned a block of land converted their barn, chicken coop and shed into housing. The door to their chicken coop was so low that Dad had to bend his head to get in. They had a coal stove, a table with 2 chairs and a 3/4 sized bed with their fridge being the floor under their bed where it got so cold that milk would often freeze. They also had a communal outhouse for all 3 buildings that was about ½ block away. It was so public that Mom found it quite an embarrassing and frigid experience to say the least. As humble as their first home was it was their honeymoon home and they were happy there. They were married on November 27th and the next week on December 7th , 1941 Pearl Harbor was bombed! These were indeed war years. Mom got a job in Red Deer working at the Eaton’s department store in their office since she could type. One and a half years later, on May 16, 1943 Mom went into labor while Dad was still out on military night manoeuvres. She was taken to the Red Deer hospital in a hearse as their good friend Thurstan Smith’s in-laws owned the funeral home there. A precious, little girl, Sharon Lee, was born hours before Dad could return home. By the time Sharon was only 3 months old Dad had received his notice to report to active duty. Mom and Dad packed up and travelled by train to Calgary together. Then they were separated for 3 years as Mom took the train to Lethbridge to reside in Cardston with her parents and Dad headed east with the troops and soon was overseas.
These were three long years but Mom faithfully wrote to Dad every day, a paragraph here and a paragraph there. Dad cherished these letter and numbered every letter from her to keep them in order so he could read and re- read them. Aunt Virginia and Aunt Lois also came to the Schow home to live and they helped babysit Sharon whilte Mom worked. She was receiving only $56 a month from the army. She got a job running the office at the Cardston Creamery. These were long walks from her home down by the dairy up to the creamery on the west side of town, especially in bad weather. Mom also used any spare time to help on the farm as there were no men at home to help her Dad. Uncle Paul was training in Halifax, Uncle Mark and Uncle Bob Clarke were overseas and Uncle Fred was assigned to Alaska during the war. By the time Dad returned home in December of 1945 Mom was settle in an apartment on the main floor of someone’s home. She was so grateful to have Dad back safe and sound although little 3 year old Sharon would ask, “When is that man going to leave?”, they soon became great buddies.
Mom and Dad moved one block west of the temple into Dad’s Grandpa Martin Woolf’s home. Here I (Peggy) was born on October 19, 1946. This time Mom got to ride in a neighbour’s horse and sleigh to the hospital as a blizzard was blowing and the drifts on the road were as high as the fences and that was the only way to get her there. Dad borrowed the sleigh to get us home again a week later. By the time Gayla was born on June 2, 1952 we were living up on the east hill of Cardston in our new 2 bedroom home thanks to a Veteran’s Loan. Dad and Mom had working painstakingly on building it for about 6 months. This was to be our growing up family home. We have many memories of this home and our good neighbors the Hinmans and the Tanners. Finally on March 27, 1954 our family was complete with the birth of a son, Gordon LeRon, who joined us 3 girls. We were delighted.
Mom was a great Mother to us 4 kids. We always felt so loved and important to her. On Sundays she would have us girls spruced up with our hair in beautiful ringlets, lovely dresses that Grandma Schow had sewn and we even wore little white gloves. Gordon was always in his Sunday best and he donned a little miniature man’s hat that he put up on the coat rack by all the men’s hats. We enjoyed outings to Waterton with Alice and Theron Smith’s family and Uncle Paul Schow’s family. We swam in Lake Linnet and Mom who loved the water would be right in there with us. We three girls slept in the same bedroom and every night Mom would serenade us with “Good Night Ladies” and “Good Night, Sweet Dreams”. Who wouldn’t feel loved with a Mom like that.
Every Monday was laundry day and that was a busy, hard day for Mom as she would fill up the ringer washer in the basement with hot soapy water, then fill up the wash tubs with rinse water in one and bluing water in the other. She had to move the batches through the ringer and into these tubs and then haul them upstairs to hang outside on the clothes line. We would usually get to bring in the laundry after school. Some wintery days that included breaking the frozen clothes pins loose and then unhooking the frozen laundry off the line and hauling these frozen edifices into the house and laying them around the living room to thaw and dry. Mom also had lots of ironing to do as Dad was the Recorder at the Cardston Alberta Temple and this required him to wear white shirts every day of the week. She was known for sprinkling these white shirts with water, rolling them up in a towel and putting them in the deep freeze. Then when she had time she would bring them out and iron them and they had less wrinkles to iron out. (We didn’t have steam irons back then.) We girls got to be her “helpers” in doing the laundry, sprinkling and ironing as we grew up. Mom also was the best cook and made amazing rolls and apple pies. We loved her roast beef dinners every Sunday, left overs on Monday, then homemade vegetable soup from the bones on Wednesday and so on. It was always wonderful to come home and smell freshly baked bread and cookies. Mom was famous for her large and fluffy angel food cakes made from scratch. They were always a hit at the Relief Society bazaars and always brought in good money. One day we were driving to the Social Center with some angel food cakes and other goodies in tow for an upcoming bazaar. As we drove down the east hill, through main street and up to the Social Center people kept honking and waving at us. To our amazement when we got out of the car to take the items in we discovered an angel food cake still on top of the car. It had survived the trip! Then we knew why everyone was so friendly.
In the 1950's Mom was hired as the secretary of the Cardston High School. She worked there for nearly 10 years. All the teachers and students enjoyed her kindness and efficiency. Sharon and I weren’t always impressed that she was so aware of our high school lives and interests though.
We lived in Cardston 4th Ward most of our life and Mom served as a Relief Society teacher for many years, she taught Beehives in the Mutual program and the girls just loved her. She also taught the 17 and 18 year olds in Sunday School for many years and was a great influence in strengthening their testimonies of Jesus Christ before they left home to go out on their own. Mom always sang in the ward choir and we could always pick out her beautiful voice as they sang. She enjoyed being called as the secretary for the Cardston Stake Primary and appreciated the opportunity to travel to SLC to attend General Conference.
These were years of great Schow extended family reunions where the ‘original eight children’ were always honoured and we would celebrate our love and heritage. Grandma Schow became bent over with arthritis, had diabetes, a bad heart and also became blind. Mom, being the only daughter in town took amazing care of her so that she could still remain in her own home for years. She took supper down to her every night and Sharon and I learned to help bath her and put her hair up in pin curls. Mom tenderly assisted her aging mother in all aspects of her life and was a great example of service to us.
Along with being Temple Recorder, Dad also worked as the accountant for the Church Ranches and when they moved their office to Lethbridge that brought a major change to our lives. Sharon had just married, I was in grade 12 so I stayed in an apartment and completed my last year in Cardston and Gayla and Gordon had to leave their friends and the ward to move with Mom and Dad to Lethbridge. These were challenging years but they did eventually feel part of their new ward and we have many lifetime friends from the old Lethbridge 4th Ward. Mom got a job as the executive secretary of the Purchasing Department of St. Michael’s Hospital. She kept this office running smoothly for 20 years and became good friends with all the doctors and especially with the Nuns or Sisters and knew each one by name. She just had a way of making everyone feel comfortable around her. During these years Mom was also called as the Junior Sunday School Coordinator in their Lethbridge Ward and she loved serving with these little ones. Her and Dad were pleased to be called as temple workers and made the trip back and forth to Cardston one or twice a week to fulfill this responsibility. Their Lethbridge home was a haven for the now arriving grand children and all were always welcomed with love, wonderful meals and fun times. When Mom and Dad retired in they moved back to Cardston in 1981 to be close to family and the temple.
These were wonderful years with many choice memories of family times and Mom enjoying her grandchildren and great grandchildren. In 2004 when Dad could no longer care for Mom she was moved to the Grandview Nursing Home. This was a hard time for her to be separated from Dad but our visits to her will always be remembered. As we came to cheer her up it was us who were cheered by her loving smile, her quick wit and her love and gratitude. Never could any one, family or people who worked there, leave her room with out her telling them thank you and expressing her genuine gratitude for the smallest thing.
In closing I would like to mention Mom’s love for gardening. She grew the most beautiful flowers of every kind: especially pansies, geraniums and her amazing roses. (Most of this garden comparison was written by Gayla Holt.) “Mom’s life can be compared to a garden. She had more than her share of rocks, thistles and great winds to discourage and challenge her in her life’s journey. She had arthritis in all parts of her body and suffered much pain without complaint. However with her testimony and relationship with her Savior, her life’s garden grew. Her selfless service and her love of good music was warm sunshine encouraging her growth. Mom cultivated good habits and a strong work ethic that kept her life’s garden blossoming. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ was true and she loved to study her scriptures. This was how she knew how to live in her garden and grew to her full potential. Her relationship and testimony of her Savior were the blueprint for her family, and service was the greatest seeds in her garden to make her life full and beautiful.”
How we shall miss our precious, darling Mother. We will miss her sweet smile and encouraging words. She will be so missed by her 4 children and their spouses, her 21 grandchildren and her 59 great grand children. May Mom know of our love and gratitude for her as we grow in our own gardens of life with her as such a wonderful example. She certainly blossomed where ever she was planted and brought her family hope and love. But how great must of been the Family Reunion in heaven as Mom was united with Dad, the “light of her life”, and Grandma and Grandpa Schow welcomed the last of their eight children home. Now she is free of pain and suffering and in her eternal garden where the Master Gardener Himself welcomed home one of His loveliest and sweetest daughters. A genuine ‘rose’ who blossomed to her fullest bloom and earned her eternal place with her Father in Heaven.
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