MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 48 – In Book, Page 115
America Remembers September 11, 2001, Life Goes On, A Beaver Is Shot In A Pond Near Grassy Knoll Trial, Shut-In Visits, Chris Mueller’s Graduation from Medford’s High School, Jennifer Poston’s Graduation from Martin Luther College and James Weiland’s Graduation from Luther Prep, Twins Aiden and Ben Anderson Are Born, Kevin Poston’s Emergency Call to Luther Prep, Ma’s Soul Is Taken To Heaven
AMERICA REMEMBERS SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 !!!!!!!!!!!
How can anyone forget this date? Our daughter, Susan, called us early in the morning and asked if we had our TV on. We said “no”, and she said, “put it on, an airplane has crashed into one of the two World Trade Center buildings in New York City,” We all know what happened after that. Another plane crashed into the other World Trade Center building, causing both to crash to the ground with thousands of people in them. The United States was attacked at home! (Please read LIFE – “ONE NATION – AMERICA REMEMBERS SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – INTRODUCTION BY MAYOR RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI”)
LIFE GOES ON
The summer of 2001 passed. My sisters, Lottie (Doloris) and Jannie (Janet) had come from California to visit Ma, others, and us. We were so happy so see them. Our children, spouses, grandchildren, spouses, and great-grandchildren came to visit us at Pioneer Park, Lake Delton, Wisconsin, and also Medford, Wisconsin. We also went to visit them in their homes.
Dick was invited to lecture about our African mission work at Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. As we went into the church, there was a little lady with whom we corresponded by the name of Esther Gillis waiting to greet us. What a nice surprise that was!
Birthdays came and went, and all our loved ones, and we, got older. What a great blessing that the Lord preserved me during my illnesses to be able to celebrate them with our family.
A BEAVER IS SHOT IN OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR’S POND
Remember, we lived 10 miles in the country outside of Medford. One day a neighbor lady came running to our home and said we should come quick and see a beaver which had been shot. It was in their pond, so they called the DNR (Department of Natural Resources), so the man shot it and he and the neighbor man lifted it up into the truck. What a sight that was! We had never seen a beaver close up before. It was at least four feet long, and the paddle-shaped tail was about ten inches long. Its cutting teeth were sharp and long. Seeing a real beaver upside down in a truck was quite an experience!
There were so many beautiful birds which came to our bird feeders. There were evening and rose-breasted grosbeaks, hummingbirds which whizzed by our heads while we sat on the deck, dark-eyed juncos, downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, black-capped chickadees, robins, red-winged blackbirds, owls, mallard and wood ducks, and many other kinds of birds. We had our own little garden of Eden. Dick had been given five or six wood duck houses (some given to us by our grandchildren. I remember Julie had made one of them) which he put up in some trees around the pond. We hoped that wood ducks would lay their eggs in them and we would see little wood ducks. Alas, it did not happen. We think owls or animals had gotten into the houses.
The trees across our pond started changing color as autumn came. One of Dick’s projects was cutting up branches of wood which laid on the ground in the woods, hoping to clear the woods. He worked hard at it, and had a nice pile of wood stacked in our garage which we could use in our fireplace during the winter. And then, as winter came, the leaves fell, and so did the wondrous glistening white snow covering everything.
SHUT-IN VISITS
Dick was asked by Immanuel Lutheran Church where our son, Tim, was pastor to help make shut-in visits to members in their homes or nursing homes who were not able to attend church. He had devotions with them and gave them communion. Both of us enjoyed doing this, getting to know more and more nice people.
MAY 17, 2002 – CHRIS MUELLER’S GRADUATION
What a blessed event it was when Chris graduated from Medford public high school! Again, we had another wonderful family get-together. It was great! He also plans to attend Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, to join his brother, Timmy. Both planned to study to become teachers as their sister, Jenny, and her husband, Kevin, are. (Debbie and Glen’s daughter, Nicole, her brother, David, David’s wife, Ann, are also teachers). We are thankful that members of our family are so dedicated to God.
MAY 18 AND 25, 2002 – JENNIFER POSTON AND JAMES WEILAND’S GRADUATIONS
The Lord provided more blessings and joy for us as we attended Jenny’s graduation from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, and Jimmy’s graduation from Luther Prep, Watertown, Wisconsin. After the graduations we had blessed get-togethers of family and friends.
JUNE 26, 2002 – TWINS AIDEN AND BEN ANDERSON ARE BORN
Our granddaughter, Cary (daughter of Wanda and our son, Dick) and her husband, Grant, became parents of twins. The announcement reads:
Oh, boy, double joy!!
Aiden Grant Benjamin Daniel
5 lbs 15oz. 6 lbs 13.5oz.
17.5 inches 18.5 inches
12:11 pm 12:12 pm
Born to proud parents
Grant and Cary Anderson
June 26, 2002
How happy and thankful all in our family are! Psalm 139:13 reads:
“For you created my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb,
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
AUGUST 25, 2002 – KEVIN POSTON ACCEPTS EMERGENCY CALL
As quoted in An Opening Service of Worship and Praise – “Kevin has completed all but one semester of the five-year Secondary Teacher Education Program in music at Martin Luther College. Kevin and Jenny participated in the European Choral/History Study Tour in the summer of 2001 and this summer attended the WELS Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Kevin accepted the one-year emergency call to teach Sexta and Quarta music classes and to direct the Sexta-Quinta choir. He has a great love for ministry, worship, music, and learning that he prays he will be able to pass on to his students.”
SEPTEMBER 24 AND 27, 2002 – MA’S SOUL IS TAKEN TO HEAVEN
The soul of my mother, “Frances Erna Bertha (Koplin) Kuckkan” was carried by the angels to her eternal home in heaven on September 24 (one day after the birthday of my brother, Henry, who had been carried by the angels to heaven on March 31, 1942.) He was six and a half years old. The funeral was at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Watertown, Wisconsin, with Pastor James Werner officiating on September 27th.
She had loved attending a Bible Class called “Dawn Patrol” at 6:00 A.M. She also helped greet people who attended church services. She told us that one time she got stuck in the snow while making home visits, and sometimes had trouble finding the numbers of apartments of people she wanted to visit.
Ma was 88 years old. We were sad, but at the same time joyful because we knew that all the pain and suffering she endured after the stroke she had on June 5, 2001, was now gone. Her body was laid to rest in St. Mark’s cemetery next to my father, Henry John, my brother, Henry John, Jr., my grandfather, Carl, and grandmother, Johanna Kuckkan, Max Ebert (Aunt Esther’s first husband who had died from tuberculosis), and their two children, Wallace, and Marvin.