Letters to grandma

Lizzy schaaf wrote, I luvd GG So So much!  I wished that she did not die!  But I am glad that she is in hevn.  Seing us.  To GG Thom from Lizzy S.


Noah Schaaf Wrote, I loved GG with all my heart.   She ment the world to me.  I wish she was still here with us.  I hope that she is having a good time in the sky.

Matthew Schaaf Wrote,  She was a awesome great-grandma.  She was very loving and kind.  She always asked me "are you doing good in school?"  She was vry generous God bless her.


There are so many wonderful memories I have of grandma.  From way back to staying the night at Murray Hill and getting to crawl in  bed with her in the mornings, because grandpa always slept in the chair.  To going over to her house as a teenager to have "Dales favorite" breakfast of apple fritters.  One of the last memories I had was when we would all get together for the holidays and all of the great grandkids would play.  I loved to watch grandma get a kick out of them.  But sooner of later you would catch her turning down her hearing aid because it was too much for her.  And of course as she said "kids make more noise today than when she was younger" I will miss the love and unity that gave to all of us for so many years.  Tim Schaaf

MEMORY

 My favorite memory of great grandma Thom would have to be the memory of my blankets.  When I was born and G.G.T. Hand knitted me a beautiful blue blanky.  This blanky was my whole life I couldn't go anywhere without it.  I even took it to school, the grocery store, and I couldn't fall asleep without it.

 But one day when I was about seven I went to my cabin up at Lake Almanor and we're getting ready to leave.  "WAIT!!" I screamed.  I couldn't find it, my blue blanket.  Where was it?  We searched for around 2 hours, but I couldn't find it.
 
I cried the whole way home.  I believe the reason I felt so bad ws because that the blanket ws made from my great grandma Thom..  It was the only connection to my family back in Michigan and now I had been clumsy and lost it.  What was I going to do?  I told grandma Thom, and sher was so nice she made me another one of Green this time because that was my new favorite color.  And everything went back to normal I still took my green blanket everywhere.  And I kept it for two years.

 But sadly history repeats itself.  And in the month of February, when I was around nine I was checking in to a ski resort with my family and a left my green blanket in the lobby.  It wasn't until after I got up to the room that I realize that I had left it on the chair.  We searched again but it seems that little boy or girl took it for the hotel never recovered it and neither did we.

 So again I turned to my Great Grandma Thom.  And she again made me a new blanket.  Red this time.  And soon after that I returned to Lake Almanor.  And my new dog, Annie, had found my blue blanky this  has now three years later.   It would seem about my old dog, Sammy, had hidden it, not knowing that annie would soon find it.  Through my green blanket was never recovered and I still become very sad when I think of that.  I believe that my blue and red of blanky is where G.G.T.  Lives on in my life.

Memories of Grandma
From Autumn (5)
"GG I Love you, I miss you.  I liked when we make cookies together (at Christmas).  I liked her fish light."

From Lara
Grandma, she was really the only Grandma that I knew growing up.  I remember so much about her house on Murray Hill, and growing up with her close by in the Condo on Old Dominion.  
It's funny the silly things that you remember, like the light blue toothbrush she always kept under her bathroom sink for me, it had a clown on the end.  I loved that toothbrush.  It was much cooler than the one I had a home.
As a little girl I would spend the night at the house on Murray Hill, in the upstairs bedroom.  She had a closet that actually had a door not the folding doors like at home; it was almost like a secret room.  In the mornings there was always the smell of coffee for her and Grandpa, and the glass carafe of orange juice for the table.  Grandma and I would almost always make Peanut Butter cookies, and I got to put the criss-crosses on the cookies, what a treat.  To this day whenever I make Peanut Butter cookies (especially with my daughter) I think of Grandma and my job, I now make that her job.  Grandma always talked about me wanting to walk down the alley at Murray Hill, she could never understand why a little girl who didn't have an alley was so fascinated by the "dirty alley," but I guess I thought it was neat to be able to get home right into the backyard.  
At the condo on Old Dominion, Grandpa had built an extra room in the basement for storage; Grandma was always worried that one of us kids would get locked in there.  We never did, but we sure had fun teasing her about it.  In that basement she had her sewing machine, an old singer, but I thought it was the most beautiful sewing machine ever because it had the gold painting on it, nevertheless that machine sewed so many clothes, for so many people.  Her old refrigerator and freezer from GE, she never thought about buying a new one, didn't matter that they weren't "energy efficient" they still worked after so many years; GE should have given her one as a testimony of their product.
For a while I took to calling Grandma "Granny"; she took it to heart and even went so far as to buy "made by Granny" labels for any clothes she would make for me.  Granny was always one to give, she never thought of taking only giving.
As a young adult she was so proud of me when I not only graduated from college but bought my own house.  She was in awe that I could do it on my own.   I always told her that was because of how she raised Mom who in turn raised me.
When I gave birth to Autumn, Grandma was thrilled to be able to hold her when she wasn't even 24 hours old.  Then again when I had Nate (2010), she was there.  When Nate was baptized

Rolling down the hill. I would hold her hand, one hand in grandmas, the other in grandpas. We would walk over to the hill, past the mailboxes on the corner. How did the mail lady know which mail went in which box I'd wonder. The hill seemed so far away, but really it was only a few blocks. We would walk across the parking lot. Not like our parking lot grandmas parking lot was black and the curbs we short and made from the sidewalks that meet the black parking lot. We would walk between the red, brown and white cars that lined the parking lot. 
The concrete sidewalk leads between the houses and the plants of every color. Grandma would let me smell the flowers and I would tell her which ones smelled nice and which ones didn't. We'd pass the brown fences that I was sure would give anyone a splinter if you dared to touch them. The fences held back the dogs. Scary dogs that snapped and barked tried to get out, but I was safe, I held onto grandmas and grandpas hands. I was safe.
We would get to the park. Walk past the swings and see-saws and to the hill. Grandma and grandpa would stand at the bottom of the short hill. I would run to the very top and lie sideways on the dewy green grass and go rolling-rolling-rolling down to grandma and grandpas feet.

Memories of my mother

 As a child, mom was always home to take care of me.  I know she was a member of church groups and that she took  china painting and hat making classes but it seemed that she was always there.  She was my Girl Scout leader which meant we did a lot of activities together.  I mostly remember the garage full of Girl Scout cookies one year.  We could hardly move between the cartons. What a job she had distributing them to all the scouts. As a kid she always had the best lunches waiting for me when I came home from school.  Roll up pancakes were my favorite and every once in a while she would treat with those. Her apple fritters were really special As I grew older mom would drive me anywhere I needed to go and never complained whether to Sorority function and friends houses.  What a good mom.  When I started to date she would welcome my dates and never make comments about them.  She did make sure I got home by midnight or else I heard about it.  When I did find the man to marry Mom embraced him as her own.  How grateful I was for that. I remember the rush to get things ready for college when I was notified at the last minute that there was room for me in the dorm.  Never a complaint just a mad scurry around and pack quickly.  The Mom's week-ends at college were always fun as she slept in the room with me.  Once I graduated she was so proud of me and that I had become a teacher.  She was always anxious to hear about my day and what the kids were doing.
 Ont thing I will always remember about Mom was about 4:30pm  each day she would stop work and "freshen up" as daddy was coming home.  She was always a lady.  Make-up and jewelery.  I admired her for that.  There always was a home cooked meal ready and boy was it good.  She was the best cook ever..Her pies were the best.  Nobody could make a pie crust like hers. I try but they are just not like Mom's.  Holiday dinner were always special.  For each holiday she would make a unique individual Jello mold.. Dinner was on the ping-prong table in the basement.  It was a lot of work for her but I never heard her complain.
 As she got older we spent a lot of time together visiting with her and daddy.  It was always fun as she loved the grandchildren being there.  Her devotion to her mother taught taught me what real love is and I admired her for that part of her
 Even in her old age she was always great full for all anyone did for her.  Ready to write think yous or  to make a call to say how much she appreciated what someone did for her. Helpful was her middle name.  I can still hear her say, "Now what can I do to help?" I can't ever remember mom being mess about her self.  She was always dressed beautiful, hair done and make on.  A necklace or pin was part of her every day outfit.  A beautiful woman my friends would say about her.
 Making 'Katz-um-sack' cookies at Christmas will never be the same.  For the last 4 years she has helped and enjoyed showing her granddaughter just how to roll them "So they do not break."  This tradition will go on as long as I am able in memory of mom and her mom. Chocolate chip cookies were a treat and they always arrived in the old yellowed canisters.  The kids knew Grandma had been thinking of them.
  Will we miss her? YOU BET.  She was a part of our every day and every plan.  A real role model for me and my daughter to look up to. Love you for ever Mom.  .  Janet

Memories of my mother-in-law

 From the time I first meant Mom  I liked her. I have so many good memories I don't know where to start.  She was a wonderful cook and cooked foods very similar to my mothers.  She was fun loving and very caring. Funny as it  seems,  mom sort of dressed like Mrs Beaver, high heel shoes, freshly ironed dress and hair was always neat.  One memory I have is when  mom and dad came over to our house with my birthday cake, which was in a rubber made cake container that had a handle.  Mom got out of the car with the cake and some how the handle didn't hold and the cake fell out of the container on the grass upside down, we picked it up and ate it anyways, it was great, I called it a upside down cake.  After mom and dad moved to the condo in Clinton Township, I got to know both of them better, lot of good memories and good cookies.  
 
 After dad died, Janet and I included mom into more of our activities like going to the movies, shopping but she would tell Janet “no you two go by your selves, you don't want me hanging around with you”so I would call her and say “your probably tired of being with us so much you probably wouldn't want to go with us to the movies would you?  It worked most of the time, she would say, oh no I would love to go with you.. I got mom to join me in wood carving, in her late 80s no less.  One of her projects was a little wooden mouse that I always felt she took pride in, and she should,  I have placed it in the casket,   She was a good pie maker, especially rhubarb pie, so I would cut some of my rhubarb and take it over to her place put it on the kitchen counter, the next day she would make a rhubarb pie. Mom was very conservative even with food.  She would say, just give me a half glass of milk as I probably would drink the rest, she even said that with a glass of WATER. 
  
 I remember she was always proud of her familys accomplishments: children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, homes, etc.  The love she showed for us and our children and especially our faith. was always there.  She never wanted to spend money on her self.  Just recently Janet told her that she needed to buy some new clothes, she got mad an said what she had was good enough and it was foolish to waste money like that.  Her last few days in the hospital she would hold our hands so tightly, giving you the feeling the end was near. I have so many memories of Gertrude Thom, which makes it even harder for the loss but I am sure she is in Heaven now  preparing a room for us.

LOVE YOUR SON LARRY

Compassionate, patient, diligent, hard-working, caring, thoughtful, selfless, classy, funny, and intelligent; these are just a few of the words that describe Gertrude Thom to me. 
But words really don’t capture the essence of what a wonderful person she was and how much she taught me. 

Grandma, which is what I immediately called her the first time we met over 20 years ago, was a naturally wise lady that used her life experiences to help guide others with their lives. But she imparted this wisdom mostly living it day to day and showing us by example.  I never really had grandparents of my own growing up- as I am the youngest child of parents who were only 10 years younger than Gertrude! . I still remember visiting her in Michigan with Meg and Joe when they were very young and arriving looking a little harried I am sure. She was always able to put those around her at ease and seemed to intuitively know what would make someone feel better! For me, she would give me some small task in the kitchen to do that would occupy my time and make me feel useful!  It was as if she knew exactly what I needed to boost my spirits when I was feeling overwhelmed.  She believed in the power of the next right action. Doing what was right in front of you that needed to be done and not wallowing in self pity or remorse.  She believed in the power of hard work –like cleaning the top of your curtains-but ironically at the end of almost every phone call would tell me, “ Now Katy, don’t work too hard!”  She was an amazing woman who lived an incredibly beautiful life and I am so blessed to have gotten the chance to know her.

I remember when I was about 8 or 9, my brother, my dad, and I went to go visit G.G.T. in her old apartment when she lived by herself. I always thought her house was really cool because she had a basement and we didn’t have a basement in California. As soon as we arrived at her house G.G. said, “Meghan would you like a cookie?” and I nodded my head and she took me by the hand and lead me down the basement stairs to get the cookies out of the refrigerator. She let me hold the plate as we came back up and put them on the counter and she said, “I made your daddy’s favorite, Snicker doodle.” My dad smiled and I realized that even though my dad was a grownup he still got to be taken care of by G.G.T. and how nice it was that he still had his grandma like I had a grandma. A grandma that would always love him and take care of him so he didn’t have to be a grown up all the time. I was happy to know that I had a woman like that in my family history, who was so kind, generous, and thoughtful to all the “kids” she knew, no matter if they were 60 years old or 6 like my little brother. She gave my dad a cookie on his way out and as she hugged me when we left she said, “I love you, Meghan”.  I said, “I love you too G.G” and I knew I was lucky to have not only a grandma but a great grandma who was as warm-hearted as her. 
 
Love,
Meghan

My special memory of G.G. Thom. 
I remember visiting G. G. Thom in Michigan.  I remember when we came over, she made these really good cookies that I had never had before,  and she said that they were a special recipe.  I also remember laughing a lot with her and was surprised at how much vitality and spunk she had.  I always enjoyed receiving letters from her and will miss writing her.  She was so joyful and caring, and always wanted to know how we were doing and what was going on in our lives.   She was so beautiful inside and out and I will dearly miss her.

 For nearly 50 years I was blessed to have a wonderful Grandmother in my life. My memories of grandma
span from the time she bought enough boxes of Quisp cereal, at my pleading, so I could get
the cool Official Quisp Spinner hat, with the box tops, to my first Snicker Doodle cookie (no
one made Snicker Doodles like Grandma), to our many phone conversations about the
weather in Michigan versus California.

I cherished my phone calls with grandma. We would joke and laugh and she would occasionally remind
me that if my father had not moved us to California, I would be there in Michigan. Being the only family
member born in California, I would respond that I would love to be closer to her and the family, so why
didn’t they all move to California, “after all our weather was better”. She would laugh and try to tell me
how Michigan’s weather was not all that bad, and besides “she loved the seasons”.

Grandma also gave me great advice. Whenever I would comment about the trials of being a parent, she
would tell me to be thankful that my children are healthy and happy and what a blessing they were. She
of course was right! She also told me to take my time before getting married. She told me to go out and
goof off, buy toys, and travel, so that when I found the right women, which I have, I would never look
back. Now some say I might have had a little too much fun before getting married, but I just did what my
grandmother told me to do!

Grandma also helped coach me on my business. She always checked in and wanted to know how things
were going. She also wanted to make sure I was taking care of the people who worked with me. In fact,
our company closes early on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve because my grandmother told me “you
need to let them go home early so they can get safely to their families for the holidays”. This is formally
known as the Grandma Thom Policy.

Grandma Thom was a wise and generous person who always wanted to make sure her family was taken
care of. She never wanted to put anyone out and she could not understand how the world “had gotten
so crazy!” Grandma was a wonderful woman and will be missed by ALL of us!

Dale Carlsen

THE LADY IN THE HOUSE ON MURRAY HILL
BY Elaine
 
PREFACE
April 2, 2010.  The heart-wrenching news arrived that my mother passed away. At my age of seventy four, I am thankful for those ninety nine years with my mother,as I realize most do not have their mother as part of their lives for so many years. I hope that by sharing my thoughts,her memory will remain with those of you who read this, as she was a “mother” also, to so many of you that knew her. 
 
MEMORIES

I remember MY UPSTAIRS BEDROOM as a child, when the cool wind blew crisp leaves past my window,and I laid in bed inhaling the aroma of those raked autumn leaves outside lawn of the house on Murray Hill.  I recall with joy a blistery night as a wisp of big snowflakes floated silently pass my bedroom window. “What would Santa bring?”  I thought as I lay in bed, too excited to sleep … a White Christmas Morning was just ahead.  Spring brought the damp and storming nights as the rain pounded steadily against the bedroom window. The thunder roared and a lightning bolt found cracks in the venetian blinds to brighten the bedroom for a brief startling second. As often it happened in summer, I remember many a horridly humid night as the chirping of crickets were heard,the white sheets were even too much on my body,and the fan hummed as I fell asleep.  I am grateful for all those nights as a child that I was safely upstairs in my bed on Murray Hill Street,knowing mother was just downstairs and all was well. In these moments before sleep, my mother gave this child the gift that not all children are fortunate to have,a safe and loving home where I could thrive.  My mother and my childhood home on Murray Hill are memories that formed who I am today.  The two are intertwined together.  

I remember the VICTORY GARDEN behind the house on Murray Hill watching tomatoes, corn and green beans grow.  Mother would “can” the fresh vegetables and line them up proudly on the basement shelf. Dad was a block warden during the black/out years during the war time and worked nights in the factory to supply the added war-needs of the war effort.  The war was but a pin/point in my memory as a child, but we were made to feel we were doing good, helping the “cause”.  

I remember SUNDAY in the house on Murray Hill:  Sunday was always “Church Day” and mother always wore gloves and a hat to Church.  I wonder what she thought of the shorts and thongs worn to church today!  After Church we would come home for Sunday dinner.  It was often a steak, a special Sunday treat; in those days, we shared a steak between the four of us.

 My mother learned to china paint, took millinery classes to make fashionable hats for those Church occasions,was a Girl Scout leader, a “church lady”, and played bridge for 50 years with the same group of ladies. I remember her sitting knitting baby booties, and sweaters.  I cherish the afghan she knitted for me,one of many she gave to friends and family over the years.  Despite being busy with her interests, my mother was seemed always home in the house on Murray Hill.  I would hear her up first thing in the morning, fixing breakfast.  I would see her gardening in the yard, in the basement wringing clothes through a hand wringer.  When I walked home from Crary School for lunch, there was Campbell’s tomato soup and a Velveta grilled cheese sandwich, and for dinner she made meat and potato dinners with fresh homemade pies, a traditional mid/western menu of the time.  We always ate together at the kitchen table, a family unit.  Mother wore aprons, cooked, baked, hung clothes on the line outside, planted snapdragons, sewed clothes for my and sister, even sewed shirts for my dad, and made sure Santa put a doll dressed in pink under the Christmas Tree just for me. 

I remember COOKIES baked at the house on Murray Hill.  Mother would bring homemade cookies down to the basement, the coolest place in the house on Murray Hill, where my girlfriends, Lois, Janice, and I played Parcheesi for hours.   I remember the dozens, and I do mean dozens, of Christmas cookies she would bake for the Holidays. My cousin Kathy, my sister, Janet, and I would sneak into the upstairs attic where she stored them.  Did mother ever know how many cookies we snitched from those carefully wrapped storage boxes?  My very favorite cookie, a German recipe, was from my Grandmother Lehmann. It was “Katz Um Sack”.  We never were sure how to spell it, but I think it means “cat in a sack” in German. 
 
I remember HOLIDAY DINNERS in the house on Murray Hill.  To accommodate the family crowd, Mother would set up the dinner in the basement on the ping pong table  How mother carried all those dishes and the food up and down those stairs is amazing. Aunt Emily, and Uncle Art came with Lorraine, who I thought was absolutely beautiful, along with her Tennessee husband with that weird southern drawl. Aunt Norma brought a spark to the gathering, always made us laugh, wore fancy shoes and played Christmas music on the piano without sheet music. Aunt Dorothy was always sweet and a perfect lady.  My father, Uncle Bill, and the other men enjoyed their special “male bonding” time, the cousins, Karen, Susan,David played with Janet and me, while the woman cooked, washing dishes and did “woman talk”.  Grandma Thom and Grandma Lehmann were there to complete the perfect family HOLIDAY with generations represented.  How did these family gatherings happen?  It happened because Mother created these HOLIDAY family memories. 

Mother taught me pride in putting things back where they belong.  She would always drill in me that “it is just as easy to pick up an item and put it back where it belongs, then to have to pick it up again later.”  To this day I cannot leave the house without making my bed even though I have sixteen pink fluffy pillows to put on the bed each morning, as what would mother think if I left the bed unmade!  Saturday I had to clean my bedroom…definitely an unspoken rule in the house on Murray Hill.  Yet, mother would break her own rule of budgeting to borrow extra money from those white budget envelopes she kept in the top dresser drawer, so a teenage daughter could have a cashmere sweater for start of school and a new dress for the high school prom with Paul, my high school sweetheart.  Paul eventually was the reason for my leaving the house on Murray Hill .  I married that red-headed boy, upon his college graduation.  My parents gave me a dream wedding and off we went to California, far away from the house on Murray Hill. 

Most of al, I remember: CALM AND LOVE.  There was never a harsh word spoken from my mother in the Murray Hill home.  In fact to the day she passed away, I never heard her say a harsh word.  She was a gracious and generous lady, always thinking of others first. She was almost too good to be true, a 50’s “Leave it to Beaver” stereo-type of what a mother should be.  When I would come to visit her from California in the later years, she still was a perfect hostess, always offering a cookie and a glass of Vernor’s ginger ale or a Sanders Hot Fudge Sunday.  

In her last couple months of life, she was so scared, but yet so determined and courageous.  Even in the hospital, mother asked “What can I do to get better?”  By then, mother’s memory was minimal.  Mother kept telling me that she want to go “Home”.  To New York”, she said quietly. “ Mother is waiting for me”, she repeated over and over again during her last few weeks I spent with her.  We do not know much about those childhood years of mother, as she did not talk about her own childhood.  We know money was scarce, her mother worked, her father was often absent, she had to take care of her little brother, Arthur, and food was not plentiful.  However, she must have been happy there, as she wanted to go home to New York and her mother. Gertrude only lived in New York until she was maybe 12 years old, but in now in her now dementia-ridden world, New York was “home” to her, her safe place.  I believe mother is “home” now … in Heaven with her mother.  If I get to the point of memory loss, I hope that my last memory will be of the house on Murray Hill.  I pray I can still go “home”,  like mother did, to my favorite safe childhood place for comfort … to the house on Murray Hill and mother’s loving arms.  

In the last couple months of her life, she repeatedly told me that “It is a crazy mixed-up world.”  In her mind, it definitely was mixed up for her.  However, she retained her dignity though out her life.  From a child in New York, born of a German immigrant mother, Gertrude evolved into the perfect “American as homemade apple pie” mother.  So in the end, maybe we all will return to our roots, the beginning of each of us – our own safe place called “home” whatever that may be for each of us.  Did my mother have a happy and satisfying life?  Well, I believe that if we could ask mother now, she would use one of her favorite mixed-up expressions to tell us   
“You bet your tootin’ I did!”

You were such a blessing to me.  I love you Aunt Gertrude and will keep you always in my heart.

AVIS DE DÉCÈS

Gertrude L. Thom

1 août 1911 – 2 avril 2011

Resurrection Funeral Home

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