“Mom’s Story” as told by her children is as follows:
It was 109 degrees on June 29,1921 in Fergus Falls Minnesota. On a small farm a woman named Bertha Hanson was about to give birth. Inside the house it was intolerably hot. Therefore, the blessed event of the birth of my mom, Edith and her twin sister Esther, took place on the front lawn of their farm home. Mom recollected that her mother told her that the doctor and her dad, Albert Hanson, were sitting in the shade visiting while the labor and birth occurred. Although my mother never uttered a swear word in her life worse than “ding busted”, she swore that the doctor’s name was Dr Trump. Certainly, a unique twist and tidbit of Flugstad trivia in 2020.
Mom had 4 siblings; her twin sister Esther, older brothers Loren and Russell, and an older sister, Ruth. They grew up in Fergus Falls, initially on a small farm and ultimately a waterfront home on Lake Alice which is the house we as a family are most familiar with and the home where most of her childhood memories occurred. Much of their food was homegrown, such as eggs from her chickens, that she considered her childhood pets, milk and other dairy from their cow and a large vegetable garden.
She recalls walking or skating across Lake Alice in the winter to get to school as well as to a rink prepared on the frozen lake where other kids and adults congregated to skate and play hockey.
The family enjoyed frequent visits to Bertha’s childhood home, The Hendrickson Farms, located in Lamberton Minnesota. She recalled getting in all sorts of trouble with her cousins on the farm, especially one cousin named Caspar.
Her father, Albert, worked as a medical care provider at the State Hospital in Fergus. Mom recalled many interesting stories regarding his patients.
Mom was raised in a Christian home and became a Christian in early childhood, although she cannot recall the specifics. Her family was quite involved in their church. She recalls many visiting pastors and missionaries at their home for dinner and or spending the night.
Mom graduated from Fergus Falls High School in 1939. She played the clarinet in the high school band. Her high school was made famous on a U tube video featuring the band director playing every instrument in the band and combining the recordings on zoom to create an entire band performance.
After graduation, Mom attended business school. We still cherish her old text books from that training. She worked at various jobs utilizing her secretarial skills.
Through a mutual friend, Lloyd Osness, Mom was introduced to her future husband and our father, Morris Flugstad. As hard as I tried to extract the memories of that first date, courtship and proposal, she could not recall those details. They married on October 24, 1943 during the heart of World War II. As such, since Dad worked as a civilian scientist throughout the war, she and Dad moved frequently; living in Boston, where she refused to eat the lobsters Dad ordered one night at dinner, Charleston, Houston, Corpus Christi and Oak Ridge Tennessee. Dad worked on the Manhatten project in Oak Ridge where the one of the atomic bombs was developed. Mom recalled Dad calling her when she was visiting her folks in Minneapolis to bring a certain physics book he needed. While working at Oak Ridge they lived in the adjacent town but mom knew nothing about what transpired there until August 1945 when that bomb detonated over Hiroshima.
In February of 1945, they had their first son, Paul. Paul, as an infant, travelled and lived in various locations including one where Mom recalled her taking him off the toilet and finding a poisonous snake ready to bite him.
After WWII, Mom and Dad moved back to Minneapolis where Dad took a job at Allis Chalmers as an electrical engineer. He and mom set up home on Longfellow Avenue across the street from a golf course. That house still stands today looking nearly identical to the home they lived in . While living there, they had two more children, Carol in 1948 and Dan in 1954. Her sister, Esther, and her husband , Sanford, lived in Minneapolis also with their daughter , Dawn. The families were very close and tragedy struck when Sanford became a victim of the polio epidemic in the early 50’s. He was paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. The need for family support between the twin sisters sustained them until 1955, when, the Flugstad clan moved to Seattle as Dad took a job at Boeing. This move was tough on all of the families after that given that long distance phone calls were rare and expensive. It was a time when the closest communication was a letter every few weeks.
Mom and Dad purchased a house in the Broadview area of Seattle in 1956. In 1959 Ben was born and 1961 Phil was added to the family. The house was full and mom’s household responsibilities grew tremendously.
Shortly after the move to Seattle, Dad’s mother, Rachel, passed away. As a result, our Grandfather Ole Flugstad moved into our home. Suddenly mom was caring, cooking, cleaning and shopping for a family of 8. This became a very demanding time for her but she was up to the task. In fact, so up to the task that they bought a vacation home on Camano Island and soon that became a year round every weekend retreat for the family. Preparing for the weekly trip of 5-8 people and two cats to Camano every Friday and returning every Sunday night significantly added to mom’s demands and stress level. However, she loved Camano. She really enjoyed beachcombing for agates and unusual pieces of driftwood. The kids still have many of her agates that were polished and make an nice display in our homes. Mom was not as enthusiastic about seafood. Dad brought her a Dungeness crab up from the beach to cook for dinner. She put it in cold water in the pot on the stove and the crab kept trying to get out. She made Dad
take it back down to the beach to live on for a few more years. Only once were we able to encourage mom to don a swimming suit and swim in the freezing Puget Sound. She was smarter than the rest of us that way.
The Flugstad life was very busy but good. Then suddenly in 1973, tragedy struck our household when her husband, our Dad, became ill with Kidney cancer. He rapidly deteriorated from a strong robust person and passed away only a couple of months after his diagnosis.
Life in the Flugstad household was suddenly changed and never the same. Mom’s responsibilities changed. Dan at age 19, Ben age 14 and Phil age 12 were still living at home. Paul and Carol were both married. Paul was finishing his residency in anesthesia and Carol worked as an RN for an oral surgeon. Fortunately, they both chose to settle in the Seattle area, thus creating the close extended family unit and comradery that still exists today. Dad never met any of his 16 grandchildren nor any of his numerous great grandchildren, but we know he will someday in heaven.
Mom now realized that her resources were limited and would not last her for the rest of her life. She decided to go to school and get a profession and then a job. This was such an unexpected change for mom. She and Dad were planning to slow the pace, do more travelling as a couple, leading to less household responsibilities as the children grew and left the home. They had just been married 29 years and she was just 52. Little did she know at that time that she would outlive all of her siblings and be a widow for 47 years.
Mom was granted admission to Shoreline college where she attended full time for 2 years obtaining an Associate Degree in medical transcription. She then took a job at Safeco where she served as the executive assistant to the medical director of Safeco until she retired at age 65. During her tenure there she walked to the bus rain or shine 5 days a week to go to work as she no longer drove a car. Her last driving episode was driving one of the cars home from Camano in deep snow in the late 60’s. That was it for her driving after that experience.
Mom stayed in her home in Broadview for many years. She then sold the family home and purchased a condo in Kenmore on Lake Washington which was near several of children. This proximity made it easier to visit, help her with her shopping and getting to medical appointments.
In the fall of 1983, another unexpected tragic event shaped mom’s later life. Her twin sister, Esther, and her were planning a possible move for Esther to Seattle with the intent of living together during their senior years. Unfortunately, a horrible unusual accident occurred at Logan Airport when Esther and her daughter Dawn were returning from a vacation in England. She fell out the back doors of an overcrowded bus sustaining severe lower extremity injuries. She tragically passed away during surgery for her leg injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mom was devastated as was the rest of the extended family at this sudden premature loss of one of our favorite aunts. We always loved staying with Esther and Dawn when our family travelled to Minneapolis.
Mom actually maintained quite good health and mental acuity over the ensuing years. She did have problems with her leg veins , progressive spinal curvature causing her to be bent at about 90 degrees at the waist at the end as well as arthritic shoulders and knees.
She moved to Foss Village near Broadview about 6 years ago. This again was a location that was easy to visit for family and friends. She was happy there with the fun social interactions, seasonal parties that we could attend, outdoor barbecues and summer fairs. She made good friends there and was cared for well by the head nurse, Irene Sumi, who she knew from the Rock of Ages Church.
In February of 2020, the Covid pandemic hit. The Foss Village wisely immediately placed the facility on strict lockdown. This strictly prohibited any family visitation. The lack of social interaction and the lockdown itself led to progressive dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities that necessitated urgent hospitalization for correction of these problems. The doctors and us as a family were sure she would pass away within days of this hospitalization. However, with much fervent prayer and aggressive care from her children, feeding her and pushing fluids and high calorie drinks, she rallied for a couple months. This was an extreme blessing as we were able to spend a lot of intense time with her for about 2 months. She mentally woke up, shared old memories and stories with us and enjoyed listening to hymns. She slowly began to deteriorate again and passed away peacefully entering into the arms of her Savior during the evening of June 16th. She would have been 99 on June 29th and we were preparing a Zoom birthday party with her, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. God had different plans for her. She is now rejoicing in heaven with a new fresh able painless body with our Dad and her siblings and other relative and friends that predeceased her. Thank you Mom for all you did for us over 99 years. We will miss you so much!
Edith Angeline Flugstad was preceded in death by her husband, Morris Flugstad in 1973. They were married for 29 years. She is survived by 4 sons and 4 daughter-in-laws: Paul and Beverly(Dorsing) Flugstad of Kenmore Washington, Daniel and Cheryl (Imbery) Flugstad of Seattle, Benjamin and Rebecca (Gustafson) Flugstad of Vacaville, California and Philip and Kathleen (Melnick) Flugstad of Bothell Washington and daughter and son-in law, Carol (Flugstad) and Forrest Wills of Lake Forest Park, Washington. She is also survived by 16 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren. In addition, she is survived by one nephew, Mark Hanson (Jan Hanson) of Laverne, California and two nieces, Dawn Shaleen of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Sharon McKinley of Upland, California. Edith had 5 first cousins. Irene (Johnson) Nelson preceded her in death. She is survived by Ardelle (Hendrickson) Fonss (husband Norman) of Lamberton, Minnesota, Carol (Hendrickson) Madison of Lamberton, Minnesota, Elaine (Hendrickson) Green (husband Jerry) of St Anthony, Minnesota and Wayne Hendrickson (wife Genny) of Kasson, Minnesota.
A private small family gathering memorial service at the graveside will occur.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Rock of Ages Lutheran Brethren Church. Reverend Ole Nils Flugstad, father-in-law of Edith, was the founding pastor.
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