It’s incredible how a relationship can change. I went from looking up at her as a little girl, to looking down at her as a grown woman. I sit alongside her as she tells me stories she’s forgotten that she’s told me, daily. Every memory crosses past her face in old movie reel fashion. A movie that her television would have only shown in black and white but she lived in the brightest of colors.
I listen. I watch her movements and her faces go through every memory. Imagining each scene as if I was there alongside of her.
I don’t know her as a little girl. I haven’t seen more than a few black and white pictures that she keeps tucked along with her birth certificate and silver pieces. But, I imagine.
THE LANTERNS
She said that she would never go back in time to her childhood. Her facial expression told me immediately that she did not like being a kid in the 1940’s.
She swiped her hand through the air as if to swat away the memories, like flies, before she continued with the story.
"When I was little we had a farm. If we didn’t do our chores we would be grounded Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So, we did our chores. We had to go out and light all of the lanterns, every night! In the dark. Every morning and night. Winter was always dark."
She put her hands together, leaning towards me. Serious. Her crooked fingers hesitating to fit between each other, as if they were an old puzzle that just didn’t fit together quite right anymore.
"My brothers. My brothers used to scare us. They waited for us and oh, we hated it!"
She pursed her face with the taste of that sour memory.
"Jerry and I didn’t ever want to go outside because the boogie man would get us. Especially Chuck! What was the boogie man? We didn’t know!
Jerry and I had to mop the toilet every Saturday, no matter what. Mother had 9 sisters so we always had to clean it. Every other week it was my turn to clean it.
You just do it. You know it was your turn. You just did it."
I imagined her. Little. Brown hair. Running as fast as she could down to the barn, knowing that at any moment her brothers would scare the little legs right out from under her. Her lantern lighting small bits of her uneven path.
"They have covered her face, dressed her and combed her hair. They have been small and soft, sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw. They have held my father, they have held me, they have held my children and they have held all of our hands. They tell the stories of our past and are tools teaching and showing us the way to our future. They have cooked, cleaned and worked to the bone. And to this day, when not much of anything else of her works real well, her hands hold her up, lay her down, and again continue to fold in prayer. My Grandma has the most of wonderful hands."
-Johanna Martinson August 17th, 2020
April 17th, Grandma Trudy left us, making her way to heaven. The day after her 88th Birthday. God must have found a job for her, and she was ready to go to work.
I will miss you terribly Grandma. I will miss our walks. Chats. Your wisdom. Stubbornness! I will miss your hands and your voice. I will miss you calling out to me in the yard to get this cute picture. I will miss listening to how HOT Sam Elliot is (insert laugh here). I will miss your phone calls.
I will miss you in more ways than I can list. Things others just won't understand and don't deserve to know.
I love you Grandma! We love you!
OBITUARY
Gertrude "Trudie" Pater (Thomas). Born April 16th, 1934, to Maxwell and Farah Thomas. Trudie peacefully passed on Sunday April 17th, 2022, in Darrington, Washington with family by her side. She is survived by her five children, Maxine (Jeff) Wallen, Marlene (Mike) Hendrickson, Allen Pater, Elbert (Judy) Pater, Mary Sells, numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Trudie was born in Hines Minnesota; she was one of nine children. Trudie married Tony Pater in 1952, together they had five children. In 1964, Tony and Trudie packed up their five children along with all their belongings and headed for Washington, she loved to tell the story of driving their 1948 Pontiac with a two-axel trailer across the Rockies and what a ride it was. Trudie loved spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She loved to go for road trips, gardening and canning the things she grew for the upcoming winter. She spent many years travelling the county with her friend John and loved to reminisce about all the sights she has seen. Trudie was always so proud of her family and made sure to tell everyone about their great accomplishments. You will be so missed Trudie; your kind soul and contagious smile will be talked about for many years to come. We love you beyond words.
April 16, 1934 - April 17, 2022
Story time:
"I can remember when I was a teenager. We would say can we go to the movies in town tomorrow night? She would say is your room clean? Is the house clean? Is the garden weeded?..our garden was like an acre..so there we were weeding all day..if the garden was weeded it would be is lawn mowed..don't forget we have to butcher chickens in the morning and we had to pick feathers..oh yah the new roof..."
-Marlene
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