MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 52 – In Book, Page 125
Eightieth Birthday Surprises, (Steph Came on Thursday, Dinner at Mine Shaft in Hartford, Wisconsin, on Friday with more Family, Fellowship in Hartford Park, Karaoke at Steve and Melody’s Home on Saturday, Worship with Family Sunday Morning, Tyler’s Baptism Celebration Sunday Noon, No Mueller Great-Grandchildren, Gathering at Riverside Park in Watertown Sunday Afternoon, Photographer Takes Pictures of Family, Augie’s Elite Cuisine Caters Evening Meal), Dad’s Help with Mom’s Memoirs
WOW! It was one surprise after another! Steph from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Steve from West Bend, Wisconsin surprised us on Thursday, September 4th. Steph told us Watertown was a side trip from Fort Worth, Texas, where she had gone on business. Isn’t that a little bit out of the way, Steph? We were so happy to see both of them.
Tim had told us he and Sue were going out to dinner on Friday, September 5th. The next day he asked us if we wanted to go along. I asked where, and he said, "Hartford". Dad started thinking and thought maybe we were going to the Ponderosa. That is where they had taken us once before for a surprise birthday party. But Tim said we were going to the Mineshaft; and asked if we had ever been there. We said that Steve and Melody had taken us there, and we liked it very much.
We entered the very crowded Mineshaft and I thought a lady was going out the door and said, "You can go ahead of me". The lady said "GRANDMA!" I looked in her face, and said, "CARY!" And then I saw Dick and Wanda from Orlando, Florida, and Grant, Ben, Aiden, Mason, and Theron from Wichita, Kansas! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Like I said, one SURPRISE AFTER ANOTHER!!!!!! There were also Debbie, Glen, and Family, Tim, Sue, and Family, Jimmy, Steph, and Steve and Melody! Wow, what a blessing! It was a miracle for all of us to be together, and we thank God for it.
After eating the delectable dinner, all of us went to a park in Hartford so we could all visit together and so the little ones would have a place to run around and play. Karen came to join us there. The weather was fantastic and there was a beautiful moon. I was sitting there and Steph said, “I see the moon”. Steph remembered when I read from a book when she was little in Africa and said, “I see the moon, the moon sees me, God bless the moon, and God bless me.” I will never forget that – it meant so much to me.
We had another awesome evening on Saturday, September 6th in Melody and Steve’s elegant home in West Bend with all six of our dear children and their spouses. We were treated like kings and queens. The food was delicious and we had a great Karaoke time. I love it that all of our children love to sing. Thank you, Melody and Steve, for having us. Everything was exquisite – and unforgettable!!!
On Sunday morning, September 6, 2009, the day before Dick’s birthday, we were at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS), Watertown, Wisconsin, for the church service, and pretty soon were joined by members of our family (some had gone to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS) for Tyler Matthew Poston’s Baptism Affirmation – he was baptized in Watertown Regional Medical Center on August 21, 2009, which we attended) and they kept coming in. Another surprise for Dad’s 80th birthday, September 7th!!!! As I write this, tears are coming into my eyes.
Pastor Karl Walther’s inspiring sermon was based on Exodus 16:2-5, 13-18 – "How Do You Deal With Scarcity?" 1. Don’t grumble 2. Do look to heaven 3. Do share. Even though the sermon was not meant for our birthday celebration, it could not have been more appropriate. Six of our little great-grandchildren went up to sit around Pastor Walther when he had the Children’s Devotion. And, during the praying of the special prayers, Pastor Walther thanked our God for the blessings He has bestowed on us for the past 80 years, fifty-six of them as husband and wife and sixty-four of them as beloved of each other. Then, dear family, we were joined by you for communion. It reminded me of Crystal Lake, Illinois, when you were all with us at Lord and Savior, but now we are blessed with more loved ones at the altar of our loving God. We are richly blessed!
Thank you, Tim and Sue for the delicious buffet dinner on Sunday, complete with a scrumptious cake honoring Tyler’s Affirmation of his Baptism. Afterwards Tim thought we should go to Riverside Park so the children could run around. When there he thought we should go to the island. The children were playing by the water, the men played Bocce Ball, and the women visited together (Jenny and Julie, Sue and Tim’s daughters were nursing their babies, Tyler (born August 20, 2009) and Adalynn (born August 1, 2009). Dick was concerned that the children could fall into the water, so I went to be with them. All of a sudden they were attacked by bees!!!! They all screamed and ran to their parents. But they were good little troopers about it. Caleb, Nicki and David’s 6 year old said, “I just brushed it off and took the stinger out”. Thank God I was not stung because I am allergic to bees!
What a wonder to have so many little great-grandchildren running around – Nicki and Dave’s Cassie and Caleb, Cary and Grant’s Ben, Aiden, Mason, and Theron, Jenny and Kevin’s Joshua, Jonah, and Conner, and Becky and Patrick’s Gabe! They are all precious gifts from God.
Riverside Park brings back so many memories for me. When Ma, Pa, Beatie, Lottie, Hennie, and I lived at 911 North 4th Street, we would walk to the park to play at the playground, attend picnics (St. Mark’s School and family), band concerts, carnivals, baseball games, etc. So when we were there with our great-grandchildren for our 80th birthday celebration with our family, I couldn’t resist taking them to the little creek which is near the playground to tell them a story. My grandfather, Herman Koplin, and grandmother, Mathilda, came from Germany and bought their second farm north of Watertown. He cleared his land of stones with a horse-drawn “stone boat”. There was a huge pile of stones near the barn, and my sisters, brother, and I delighted in jumping from stone to stone and finding pretty ones. (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the WPA (Works Progress Administration).in1935 to provide work for persons without jobs. Dick jokingly says WPA stands for “we poke along). Anyway, some of those stones, now fallen into the creek, were placed along both sides of it and I told them the story about the stones and how I used to jump from stone to stone when I was a kid. Lo and behold, my great grandchildren started jumping from stone to stone. You can imagine how happy and tearful that made their great-grandmother!!!!!
(But, as I said to all in our family who were there when Jenny and Kevin’s Tyler was baptized in the Watertown Health Care Center, Dick and I still do not have a “Mueller” great grandchild. No, we don’t! But there is hope. Timmy (Sue and Tim’s son), plans to be married to Megan Paggi on December 26, 2009, God willing).
Tim said to Dad and me, "I wonder if we should order pizza. Maybe everyone will have to eat on the way home". We didn’t say anything, and here comes Augie’s Elite Cuisine Catering van. What a spread! There was chicken, barbecued pork, potato salad, corn, cole slaw, and baked beans, served by Jerry, a nice young man. There was even an 80th birthday cake – with 80 candles on it which we both blew out (Kim Magestro, Augie’s wife, had baked and decorated the delicious cake). All of you planned everything so perfectly, even reserving the pavilion and having a professional photographer there. In one picture the photographer had Dick and me sit down and each hold a baby. Dick held our great-granddaughter, Adalynn, and I held our great-grandson, Tyler. How wonderful!
We thank each one of you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you also for the very special cards and beautiful gifts.
WE LOVE ALL OF YOU VERY MUCH AND ALREADY MISS YOU. WE MISSED THOSE WHO WERE UNABLE TO BE THERE, BUT UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT ALWAYS DO EVERYTHING WE WANT TO DO. WE WILL NEVER EVER FORGET OUR 80TH BIRTHDAY PARTY. WE THANK GOD FOR THE GREAT WEATHER WHICH HE BLESSED US WITH EVERY SINGLE DAY WE WERE TOGETHER. GOD BE WITH YOU ALL ‘TIL WE MEET AGAIN!
Your Mom, Mom-in-law, Grandma, Great Grandma with loads of hugs and kisses
ADDED NOTE
Besides all the wonderful cards and gifts from our very special family, we thank Tim, Sue, and family for the big family picture of all of us on the island at Riverside Park which adorns our living room wall – and a beautiful picture album as their gift to us. They are absolutely incredible, and help us to relive all the memories of that blessed and happy weekend. There are so many individual and togetherness pictures of all of you. We thank those who put their pictures on the Internet – and you, Tim, especially for sorting through all of them and working so hard to put together such a beautiful album for us. How we treasure looking at the big picture of all of us on the wall, the picture of all of us on the bridge, and all the rest of the pictures of our loved ones in the album. You are all precious to us, and we thank God for you!!!!!!!
“WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING YOU
ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT”
Dick, my dear husband (Dad, Dad-in-law, Grandpa, Great Grandpa) sends out all of my Memoirs for me, for which I thank him profusely. Because he has willingly and lovingly done this for me, he has not written more of his Memoirs. He also writes and answers hundreds of e-mails, creates very special, endearing, birthday, anniversary, etc. cards (with pictures, if possible) on his computer, some in which he comforts and helps countless people in their need of loving and spiritual help. He keeps on spreading the Gospel as Jesus commands all of us to do in Matthew 28:19,20. Even though Dick is 80 years old, and I will be 80 on April 17, 2010, he quotes Exodus 7:7 – “Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh”. God is reminding us that we are NEVER TOO OLD to do the work He has commanded us all to do.