From Diana Vance

Monroe

To the Editor: 

Of all the women who will be written about on Mother’s Day I want to include my mother because she was extraordinary.

She came to the United States in 1929 to marry my father on June 29th that year. She had met him in Denmark. He told her he had a surprise for her. She thought he was going to teach her how to play tennis.

My mother left her office job in Denmark when my father sent for her. She would be leaving her entire family of seven siblings and her mother and father. She made her way to Racine where my father lived. She was excited to be in America because of the liberty and opportunities it offered.

She and my father were married in St. Mary’s Catholic Church. She wore a light rose colored dress she brought from Denmark and her corsage was filled with pink roses. She was beautiful.

But when my father told her his surprise, she was shocked. He had, without consulting her as men did in those days, purchased a boarding house for her to run. Was she supposed to share herself and her new husband with boarders, strangers? She could not believe it.

However, fate decided things when the stock market crashed on October 24, 1929 and the Great Depression began. Now she was trapped. She had no family over here, not even one sister for a confidant. Running a boarding house meant laundry from family and boarders which were all men. Then cooking and cleaning all parts of this big house. It was a daily challenge cleaning and cooking for eleven but she decided to be creative with her cooking. It became a time for her to enjoy. Dad and the boarders were delighted. In time her suppers were fabulous. We ate like kings and queens when I was growing up.

Mother, you made a full time job nobody wanted into creating a masterpiece at the dinner table. Every meal was delicious. Thank you so much, dear mother now with God. To us you were extraordinary!