Grace

The stroke left her paralyzed and stole away the present, leaving her mercifully living in the past. When I came to visit, she would ask me if I had seen “Mama”. I would tell her that Mama was really busy caring for the chickens. Grace loved them. She and Mama were proud of the many chickens they had raised over the years. She also asked about her favorite riding horse, Dick, and wanted him brought around so she could ride.

When we had her sale that year, we found Dick in the basement truck. Alice told us he was always getting loose so they chained him to the fence and he broke his leg and had to be destroyed.

Dick’s beautiful black and white hide was made into a buggy lap robe. It was lined with red and black felt with scalloped edges. It had never been used.

At the sale our teenage cowboy daughter bid wildly against the cousin who also wanted Dick. The auction crowd cheered her on, joining with her youthful excitement, and she bought the coveted robe to grace her college dorm bunk.

Grace’s parents had built our farm house in 1908. It was their home until their death and then ours for 33 years. When I found their big oval framed portrait in her house in town, I took it home and hung it upstairs in the hall. I felt like they and Dick had both come home.

When Grace broke her glasses, and she wasn’t able to go anywhere for an eye exam, I thought, “If she can just remember where she bought them, I can go there and get them replaced.”

She told me that she bought them from Mr. Newhouse. I rushed excitedly out to the car to tell Edward and we could be on our way. He just laughed! It seems that Mr. Newhouse - like Mama, and Dick - had been dead for 40 years.