My Dads words

WINIFRED RUTH MARSHALL SHRIVER
FEBRUARY 25, 1907 – JUNE 13, 2006

Mother was one of 11 children(one boy died as an infant) of Ira and Bertha Marshall. There were 5 boys and 5 girls with 25 years between the youngest and oldest child. Aunt Mary, born in 1900 was the oldest and Uncle Bob being the youngest born in 1925. With the passing of Aunt Edna in 2012 at the age of 101, only Uncle Bob is alive today (July 31, 2014). Mother made it to 99+ years. She spent the last 4 years of her life first in assisted living and the last two or three years in a nursing home in Aztec and the time in the nursing home, although well cared for as far as nursing homes go, was really not pleasant. One humorous incident was when Mom had a new room mate and Mom wanted to charge her rent.

We moved to Aztec sometime in 1937 and I am sure that as soon as we got there Mom started going to the First Methodist Church in Aztec and I suspect she never missed a Sunday unless she was ill. She was a 50 or 60 year member of the Order of Eastern Star and served at least one term as Worthy Matron. I joined the Masons in 1962 at Mom’s insistence so that my two sisters could also join Eastern Star – alas, neither one did. The Eastern Star participated in Mom’s funeral service and it was there for the first time that I learned that Mom had quite a sense of humor.

We first lived on a farm outside of Aztec with no electricity or plumbing until 1940-41 until we moved into Aztec and Mom had a gas stove to cook on and a washing machine and a clothes line for hanging the clothes. In the summer of either 1943 or 1944 we spent the summer with Dad in Chama, NM where he was working for Ed Sargent. We lived in a house provided by Sargent and I remember Mom saying that the lady who previously lived there just swept all the dirt under the beds. When we lived in Falcon, CO 1946-47, the old ranch house had a wood burning cook stove and a coal burning pot-bellied stove to heat the living room. We did have running water and electricity. Mom washed the kitchen walls as high as she could reach and where she couldn’t reach the walls were almost black caused by smoke from the stoves.

We returned to Aztec in February 1947, purchased the house at 402 San Juan Ave where we three kids grew up and where Mom lived until her death in 2006. We always had a garden and Mom would can tomatoes, peaches, grape juice, pickles and make her specialty – picalilly (sp?) YUM YUM.

Mom was really the anchor of our family and I think she was the one that held it together because of Dad’s inability to work for anyone for any long period of time. With Dad started prospecting for uranium or anything else that struck his fancy, our income was very limited. Dad always held out the hope that some day, he would be able to once again have his own cattle ranch. I think that was what kept him going and I suspect that his alcohol abuse started when he finally realized that dream of a ranch would never be realized. It was during this time frame that Mom started working in the lunchroom at the Aztec schools so that we would have money coming in.

In those days, the grocers would let you charge your groceries, and I remember my sister Peggy telling of the time she went to one of the grocery stores and was told there would be no more groceries until the bill was paid. Mother’s friend Liska Dial was the county clerk and hired her to work in the county clerk’s office. Mother was there several years. Liska was replaced by a family friend, Bonnie Lane, who ultimately was caught with her hand in the till and lost her job with the county. After Bonnie, Johnnie Byrd (a democrat) replaced Bonnie and although Mom was a republican, Johnnie kept her on. Johnnie ran for re-election against Sandra Townsend who won the election and Sandra fired Mom probably because she had a Johnnie Byrd bumper sticker on her car. Mother was as about as apolitical as one could be and I will never forgive Sandra Townsend for doing that.

After the county clerk’s office, Mom spent several years working at Goldenberg’s dry goods store until she retired. Clerks had to be on their feet all the time and Mom said it really hurt when she broke a toe and still had to stand on her feet all the time.

I never remember Mom being ill until her final few years in the nursing home. There were several years when we went without a car so Mom walked everywhere – work, shopping and going to church.

She was a great lady and a great mother. Rest well Mother, I love you.