- AUNT MARY, I never see a photo of Aunt Mary without thinking, "garden", and she alwa ys seemed to have a big one ...big as her heart, for she was always willi ng to share with anyone who'd had a hailed, drouthed out or hopper-eaten g arden. I can't believe it was because she had a choicer garden spot do wn below the windmill at her place, in a protected shallow draw. I just t hink that God gave some of us a special love of plants and growing thin gs and this was one of her gifts. She was the first of the Schuster gir ls married, at age 24 to Uncle Joe Locker ... 13 years her seni or .. . in 1916. (Her younger sister, Stephanie, at aged 19 married Unc le Joe's brother Lou, three months later.)
I heard her described once as "the least pretty" of the Schuster sister s, and I did a real double take. I never thought of Aunt Mary as anythi ng but beautiful. Her smiling face always beamed a welcome, and always wh en we dropped in there were treats in the cupboard. She once explaine d, "I always get so hungry when I travel."
I have a snapshot of Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary taken in the front yard of th eir place, but we never, went in that way, or sat in the living room to vi sit. The back door was where we went to find busy Aunt Mary doing somethi ng...and when you got inside her door, the most natural place to gravita te was to the dining room table by the East window for that cup of coff ee ... and a visit with her and the family. There were Mary and Anna, bo th schoolteachers, who were away at jobs alot of the time, and the boys, J oey and Lawrence.
I once remarked to Mom, "Boy! Her house sure shines all the time." Mom sa id, "Yes, I know, but there were "times". She'd work like a beaver getti ng everything all spruced up, then Uncle Joe would bring in harness to men d.
We didn't go visiting much during school year, so many of my memories of A unt Mary include Aunt Mary's donning her white bandanna (spotless, I mig ht add) and reaching for a paring knife. A warm vine-ripened tomato, a ta sty cucumber, and a vine-ripened melon ... Oh! -those were the things unri valed in taste. "Here is a new variety I want you to taste." They a ll tasted the same ... Super Good.
At aged 59 she laid Uncle Joe to rest and sometime after this, she moved i nto Ellis, next door to Aunt Fanny's, cared for by her daughter Anna.
The last time I saw her, her memory wasn't so good. We sat together on t he soft sofa and still felt her love. Mary Kaiser she found there, but n ot Mary Conard a grown woman with three grown children.I've always said each of my mother's sisters gave me something special, a nd from her I'm sure it was true appreciation of growing things ... especi ally those that nourished and sustained life.
By Mary Kaiser Conard 1988
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1892 - 1980 (87 years)
Immigration
