My parents with my brother and me in a photo dated January 1957, but likely taken a few months earlier at my maternal grandpa’s house.
I WONDER SOMETIMES what my mother’s life would have been like had she not chosen motherhood over career.
Not that long-term employment was truly an option for a young woman of the 1950s, unless you chose teaching or nursing, neither of which fit my mother’s professional talents or interests.
After graduating from Wabasso High School in 1951, as valedictorian no less, she attended Mankato Business College then landed a job with the state employment office in Marshall.
By September of 1954, she had quit her job and married. In July 1955 she gave birth to her first son. Within a dozen years, my mother and father would have six children.
Raising a family in rural southwestern Minnesota, in a cramped and drafty three bedroom house with no bathroom, could not have been easy.
I retain memories of my mother striking farmer matches to light the oil burning stove centered in the living room, heating a house wrapped in brown paper, straw bales snugged to the foundation.
I see her dumping buckets of hot water into the galvanized bathtub positioned before the kitchen stove on Saturday nights.
I feel her hands lacing through my stick-straight hair as I lie face-up on the kitchen counter, head draped over the sink, as she works shampoo onto my scalp.
I watch her dump cups of flour and sugar into the white bowl of her Hamilton Beach mixer, stirring up batches of bars too quickly consumed by six hungry kids. I remember, too, the treat of a few chocolate chips dropped into hands.
I smell the yeasty scent of her homemade bread pulled from the oven, remember the snippets of dough she parceled out for me and my sisters to shape miniature buns.
I hear the hiss of hot iron against cotton cloth she’s sprinkled with water.
I watch her grasp the iron ring on the kitchen floor trap door as she sends me down the creaky stairs to the dirt-floored cellar for a jar of golden peaches. Memories of summer days, of wooden crates lugged home from the local grocer, of peaches wrapped in pink tissue, of fruit slipped into boiling water, linger.
I can feel her strength as she stirs the clothes in her Maytag wringer washer with a grey stick propped always against a wall in the porch where smelly chore clothes hung.
She traded a career for all of this.
Was she happy? Did she regret giving up a well-paying and stable job for six kids and poverty?
I’ve never asked.
But I’d like to think she was happy raising a family, instilling in each of her children a strong faith in God and an appreciation and love of family, and of life.
The old farmhouse to the left, where I lived until about age 12, with the “new house” in the background. That’s my sister, Lanae, standing on the front steps leading into the porch. Was the house really that small? Apparently so.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Happy Mother’s day to you Audrey, and all the other Dear Mother’s out there. I no longer have my Mom, but she is still in my heart today, and any day for that matter. Mothers do so much for the family, and sometimes they are not thanked enough, or at all! Here is my extended Thanks to all Mothers across the globe, Thanks for doing EVERYTHING for us. Us Guys would be sorry cases if not for our Mom’s directing us to do right! They teach us to clean up, treat girls with respect, and be upstanding young men. Some of us are slow learners, but what our Mother’s instilled in our heads will always be there. God Bless all Mothers today, and each of the other 364 days of the year.
Thank you, Allan, for your sweet words on this Mother’s Day. Your mother clearly raised you with all those qualities that make for an exceptional man, humor included.
You have such vivid, loving memories of your mom, she sounds like a wonderful loving mom who enjoyed raising her kids. I love that she let you and your sister have some dough to form your own little buns. Happy Mother’s day Audrey, enjoy your day.
Yes, my mom is so kind and loving, one of those women loved by many.
What a good read….Happy Mother’s Day to you too!
Thank you, Bernie, and Happy Mother’s Day to you also.
You use words as an artist uses paints (& I use fabrics) and what is conveyed is so vivid….I feel as though I was there! Thank you…..and many hugs on this special day!!
Thank you, Doreen. I hope your Mother’s Day was splendid.
It was quite nice….and quiet. Quiet is good! Hugs……
Audrey, I remember a lot of the things you described! Our lives aren’t always what we think they will be , but it’s God’s plan and how can we doubt His wisdom!!
Well said, dear cousin, Bev. I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
Oh yes, your Mom is special! Of course being a sister we were raised the same way and understand how it was growing up on a farm. Not easy but does teach you to enjoy the simple things of life. Farm life is different now. Take care.
And you’ve always made me feel extra special.
Audrey,
Happy Mother’s Day, Audrey!
You just described my childhood!
I enjoy reading all of your posts, and this one in particular. Thanks!
Nancy
Thank you so much, Nancy. I expect many, who grew up in rural Minnesota during the same time period as us, can relate.
My Mother used to wash my hair the same way. Laying on the counter, head hanging over the sink. Funny the things we remember.
Why is it we remember things like this? Perhaps the touch of our mother’s hands, the time alone with her…imprint upon our memories.
Beautiful – Happy Mother’s Day to you:) Moms truly sacrifice for the greater good and with tons of LOVE to boot!!!
Yes, they do.
Lovely post – for Mother’s Day or any day.
Thank you, Gretchen. I’m thinking this needs to be written in poetic form.
Perfect plan!