Aunt Gladys

I am thankful for my Aunt Gladys, thankful that she is "Home" for Christmas.
I am thankful for her life, her generosity, her hospitality, her sense of humor, her stubbornness.

I am thankful for a flood of memories...
For playing "kitchen" in her kitchen with a curtain covered orange crate full of play dishes,
For countless meals at her table and her house,
For pickles, rye bread, ostkaka, Swede beans, brownies, spritz, potato salad, and cantaloupe wedges with a dip of vanilla ice cream.

For "Joy girls" at her house when I was in elementary school, and Junior Church with flannel graph stories.

For games with sugar cubes, cards, puzzles, and laughter.

For trips to Denver, California, Hawaii and Camp Buckskin.
For teaching Brent and me "When in Rome, do as the Romans".

For teaching me in fifth grade.

For my sewing machine,
For college meals with friends, and a little TV for our college apartment.

For talks about life in earlier days, explaining Fairfield life to me in years gone by.

For the big, brown reel-to-reel recorder that she and Lawrence would bring over, recording our voices over and over.

For her close relationship with Lawrence, a love obvious even to an adolescent.
For my spending the night in her bedroom the night Lawrence died, talking into the night.

For her scrapbooks and old photographs.
For the close relationship she shared with my dad, her older brother.

For her treating my daughters and husband as "special" as she treated me.

For Christmas Eves, New Years' Days, and hundreds of ordinary days,

I am thankful.

A Pioneer

My husband wrote this fitting tribute to my dad after his passing away in 1997.

A Pioneer Went Home Today

A pioneer went home today.
He grew up with this land
And tamed the earth.
Be broke the sod,
And planted the seed,
And brought it to its fullness.
A pioneer went home today.

His big hands, gnarled and rough,
Tested the stalk, ripe or tough,
And brought the harvest in.
His gentle grip enfolded
The tiny fingers
Of children, grandchildren,
Great-grandchildren.
His big hands, gnarled and rough.

He watched the seasons pass away.
Burned brown with summer sun
And winter winds,
His face was etched with wrinkles
At the last
And wisdom from the years.
he watched the seasons pass away.

He worked the stock
And ate the dust and sweat
Of countless corrals.
And spring whitefaced calves
Eyed him in all their innocence
As he judged with practiced eye.
And worked the stock.

His God lifted him up
When he was bent low
With rustling prairied grass
in face of storm's destruction.
Resilient, tough, leather skinned,
He faced the winds
And his God lifted him up.

A pioneer went home today.
He finished the final furrow
And answered God's call.
His harvest is complete.
The new seed is sprouted and growing.
The spring grass is green and fresh
And rises anew where he rests.

A pioneer went home today.
(Lloyd Joseph Skold 1911-1997)
by Gary Ozias

My Name

My name is unique...I doubt that there are many (if any) Wilma Esther's in this world. I have always understood "why" I was named Wilma Esther...Wilma was my mom's middle name (Emily Wilma), and Esther was my paternal grandmother's name (Esther Johnson Skold). (It is also my Aunt Gladys' middle name, and since I was told I got my red hair from her, I might as well share her name as well.) My mom once told me that she suggested naming me Laurie Ann, but that Dad liked the family names of Wilma Esther... for a while I thought Laurie might have been a more "contemporary" name:)
But, overall, I'm glad to have the family name, since my life is so influenced by these people in my heritage. I never knew my paternal grandmother (she died just months before I was born), but we all know what an influence our parents and grandparents (and aunts) have in our lives.
And, recently, I've been reading the book of Esther in the Old Testament; now I'm even more proud of my middle name. She was a strong woman, who made a difference in the history of our Christian faith. A commentary in my Bible says that "The book of Esther reminds us that, although we may not always see it, God is at work in the lives of His people. God can use seemingly ordinary events to accomplish extraordinary things." (The NIV Worship Bible)
AND, a friend gave me a newspaper article several years ago listing the top 10 names to name babies in Sweden that year...and number 7 on the girls' list was Wilma! Maybe my name is contemporary after all! (At least in my ancestor's native country.)