This guest book will remain open for the benefit of Salchert descendents who didn’t have the privilege of knowing Alvina, her siblings, and their ancestry. In one of my trips to speak in Salt Lake City, I visited the famous Mormon genealogy library and found numerous gross errors regarding the Salchert family, especially Alvina’s generation. I believe my beloved late father, Otto (Alvina’s youngest brother), wouldn’t want the absence of biological children to allow the legacy of this quietly noble woman of God’s heart to be lost in time. 

The humanity, not the cold data of history, has always fascinated me and led me to research my ancestry.  But then I’m a minister and have been a missionary in nine nations besides domestic missions within the U.S.. after many years of executive row in major corporations. This research enlarged  my comprehension and indebtedness of who and where I came from, and to what extent these events influenced Alvina and her siblings.

27 years ago I visited the Stearns County, MN, Historical Society. As God would have it, the Society’s president was in. He helped us filter through hours of films of 19th century local newspapers written in low German and not remotely as neatly organized as today's newspapers. He translated Alvina’s ancestors’ obituaries, interviews, and articles for hours which my hand eventually cramped from recording in shorthand. We saw maps of where both sides of Alvina’s parents, grandparents and her great-grandparents lived using period US and German/Prussian period maps of prior eras. I remember Alvina’s mother, my grandmother, spoke with a German accent, and adamantly insisted that she was not German but Prussian! The president remarked details over a map of the originating village of Alvina’s ancestry who immigrated to the U.S.  Last year I learned how to access additional records in Germany through a local genealogy society.  We learned the details of Alvina’s grandfather’s oxcart trip from Wisconsin to Minnesota. The Society had a similar oxcart on display in their museum, enabling me to see the strength and determination of Alvina’s grandparents. No wonder Alvina and her siblings quietly manifested scriptural strengths, solid character, and many other virtues. Over the years when people remarked that I both resemble and possess character traits of Alvina, my dad, or their siblings – I always embraced it as an enormous compliment. Alvina, among my other Salchert aunts, were always my inspiration and role models of unconditional integrity, hard work, discipline, honesty, and faithfulness that as a child I resolved to emulate in every area of my life. So even though Alvina didn’t have any biological children, her legacy lives on. This Salchert legacy has touched thousands of lives over the years in ministry and humanitarian volunteer services throughout our nation and nine foreign nations to date.  Also, one of Alvina’s brothers was a Jesuit priest and for a season a missionary. I was in my early 20s when he passed away. So it was especially precious for me to read and learn that we shared the same heartbeat in one mutual ministry focus of rural families. I just returned from another outreach trip to Joplin, MO doing crisis counseling and other needs  assistance of victims. Alvina was a devoted Catholic.  

Alvina didn’t have any physical children, but a term possibly foreign to Catholics is ‘spiritual children’.  This term is used and expounded upon in Isaiah 54 – referring to those lives that have over a period of time been lovingly touched, taught, and transformed by an individual apart from their biological family. I can’t help but think in those terms that Alvina likely had some ‘spiritual children of the faith.’ Decades ago when I first studied the Old Testament Proverbs 31:10-31 woman, I immediately saw these biblical traits in my Salchert aunts including Alvina. Research bore out that the Salchert family tree gave us a rich spiritual legacy besides the opportunities we all have probably taken for granted at one time or another. I recall as a small child some cousins of my dad’s who were nuns that we visited in Wisconsin. As Mike has described, Alvina possessed traits required of early pioneers to succeed. After all, her father was born during the civil war, and her grandfather was born in Germany in the late 1820’s – so you can envision the role models and depth of values she embraced throughout her life. 

Considering Alvina’s heartbreak, sense of separation and a new solitariness at my father, Otto’s wake less than two years earlier, it came as no surprise that Alvina passed away within weeks of my mother Lucille’s (her sister-n-law) death. With the expanse of ages in Alvina’s older siblings, she and my dad Otto had each other to cling to and find comfort as each older sibling passed away.  My mother was Alvina’s last connection to what once was. Lucille and Alvina were friends for over 60 years. Although not very demonstrative, Alvina loved intensely. As Mike has stated, those of us who knew and loved Alvina will both always cherish and miss her.  

I encourage younger generations to research the Stearns County Historical society for details already paid for and retained on Alvina’s Salchert fraternal side, and Pung maternal side. Especially if you enjoy history.  If you’re lucky, you may just encounter a volunteer translator as I had many years ago.

Aunt Alvina was my mother's (Isabella Salchert Miller) younger sister.  The first time I met her was when she attended my brother Dennis's wedding, 50+ years ago - she was stunning and I could only look at her in awe.  Unfortunately our paths did not cross again until much later when my husband and I met her, Lucille and Darrel for dinner at the Mall of America when we were passing through town in the early 1990's - and that was the last time I saw her.  The mystique that always sur-
rounded Alvina vanished and we enjoyed many telephone conversations over the past few years.  She was so full of wit, clarity and fun; she had strong opinions on everything, including religion and politics.  Her memory seemed to be endless.  I will miss the dear aunt that I was finally privileged to get to know.  She and my husband can share the laughter now until it is time for me to join them.  Love you, Aunt Alvina, and God bless.

Millie (Miller) Boling
Grand Junction, Colorado

Alvina was my Godmother, and I was stunned that she passed away so soon after my own mom.  

All of the sentiments that my cousin Michael wrote are the same for me.

I still remember as a young child when I was her guest for the weekend.  She took me downtown shopping, took me out to lunch to a nice restaurant, taught me a little about playing the piano and praying the Rosary together.

She was the last of her family, 96 years of age, she she lived a good long earthly life.  

She now has what we still seek.  So we do not really say goodbye but rather until we meet again.

I entered Alvina's life with the misplaced notion that she needed me but I realized in time I needed her more. She honored me by allowing me into her life. I love you Alvina, I'll miss you.

Alvina

Alvina came from a large farm family in Stearns County Minnesota. She was the eighth child of nine, although the oldest child Anna died at the age of two.  She outlived all of her siblings including her younger brother Otto of whom she had a special bond.  Alvina never married and lived alone for the most of her adult life. She possessed a character of fierce independence and supported herself throughout her life with little help from others. She was proud of this fact and detested the idea of being dependent to anyone.  
She was a devoted Catholic and prayerful person often saying the rosary and reading prayer books.  She was not a social butterfly, but she was a friend that you could trust and depend. She had a rye sense of humor and enjoyed laughter and conversation. She cared deeply about others and rarely complained about her own problems. She had an integrity bred in her that demanded truthfulness and fairness that sometimes could be mistaken as contentiousness.  She had high expectation of herself and also expected the best in others, and wasn’t afraid to point out if someone’s efforts fell short of her expectations.  The most significant character trait she possessed was her dauntless courage in the face of any adversity. This courage was most readily apparent in her attitude as age and physical infirmities limited her independence in life and required her to change to accommodate the help she needed to survive. Despite her physical challenges she was blessed with an acute and nimble mind and often reminded me, “I’m good from the neck up.” 
I’m told that when she was young she wasn’t the typical farm girl, and generally didn’t like animals.  In fact there are various accounts of a story where she was taking lunch out to the farm hands when she was startled by a snake, she screamed tossed the lunches in the air and fled back to the house.    Her niece, Mary Kay, retells another similar story:

“As an adult she never got over her fear of critters. I recall one time she joined my family during our annual week renting a lake cabin. Being a tomboy, and at Darrel's urging, me the dumb little sister tied one of my many pet frogs I adopted that week to a string, and let it jump in front of her on the table as she was eating breakfast. There went the cereal, milk and bowl!  Some things never changed!” 

So, it wasn’t a surprise that she chose city life with its refinements and protections from those unwelcome critters.
 Although the family is German and she spoke German, Mary Kay remembers: 

“She was the family member who introduced the idea that Salchert's had a bit of French blood in us, which research later proved accurate. She liked to pronounce the last name "Sal Shay" to emphasize French!  French was a big deal when she was younger.” 

 Alvina worked for many years as a secretary and was an exceptional typist and took shorthand. She often would declare that shorthand was a lost art that should still be taught in schools. I had to agree with her especially when I tried to decipher the short hand notes she made to herself.   
 She possessed many talents. She taught herself to play the piano by ear, sewed, knitted, and did needle point.    
 It is astounding to think that Alvina’s father Joseph was born during the civil war. Although he died over seventy years ago, she often talked about him. How respected he was; how people would come to Joe with their problems and he would help them, and that they would come because he would keep their confidences. She said that, “people knew what they told Joe would stay with Joe, period!” 
She did not call me four years ago to help her. In true Alvina fashion she was living alone and taking care of her own needs despite being unable to see with any real detail or read without the aid of a magnifying glass, or to pick herself up from the floor if she fell down. It was at this point that relatives called on me to help her. 
It had been nearly forty years since I had last made her acquaintance and I had no meaningful memory of her, so in my mind, I was meeting her again for the first time. It took but a few minutes to comprehend the fierceness of her independence and character. She was not in a mind to admit to me or anyone she needed any help, even though her landlord for 30 plus years was threatening to evict her because every time she fell down, she pressed her lifeline help button and the emergency responders necessarily would break down her door and cart her off to the hospital. Needless to say the landlord’s tolerance for these episodes grew thin after the three events in a period of six months. Hence I was called in to assist and move her to a more appropriate living arrangement. Still, it took a number of visits before she began understand that she had no real choice in the matter. I don’t blame her though, she needed time to get used to the idea of moving, and she needed time to decide if I was someone she could trust.  Ultimately, we were able to arrange for a room at an assisted care facility. 
It was during this time, I began to appreciate her courage and strength.  She had debilitating arthritis in her shoulder and serious difficulties with her feet, but never complained so it wasn’t until I witnessed her wincing that we were able to address her pain with medications. She also had a condition in her throat making it very difficult to eat, and would cut her food to the size of her fingernail before consuming it.  Despite all these issues she forged on relentlessly making the best of it.  
 I entered her life with the misplaced notion that she needed me but I realized in time that I needed her more. She honored me by allowing me into her life and taught me by example a grace, dignity, and courage unique to my experience. I’ll never forget her quiet resoluteness, her humble acceptance, her fierce courage, and her sense of humor.   I love you Alvina and I will miss you.

Alvina is among my earliest & fondest memories growing up, especially sharing annual holidays together. Her home movies during special events, letting us bang on her piano as children, trying to coax me out of being a tomboy & become a refined young lady are among thousands of happy memories. She was a devoted Christian in heart, action, word, while quietly, faithfully serving others, an astute professional, & loyal friend to all who knew her. She exemplified active compassion &  genuine kindness to her last day. Her stunning natural beauty of her youth never faded as age made its imprint.

OBITUARY

Alvina Johanna Salchert

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