My Mother

My Mothers Name is Wilhelmina (Minnie) Giesewski Abramowski Brown. She was born in Selbongen, East Prussia Germany in May of 1912. Everybody knew her as Minnie, but her family called her Mienku. She had a twin sister, named Anna, who only lived for 4 days as my grandmother was severely sick with tuberculosis. My grandmother died when my mother was only 4 years old and her father died when she was 14 of a massive heart attack. She told me that they ran outside in the snow to get it to put it on his chest but when they got back in the house he was dead. My grandfather Giesewski was a highway engineer. He was a very wealthy man. My mother was born with TB and had been sick most of her growing up years until she was seventeen. She had been in and out of sanitariums during those years and family members were fighting over who would be taking care of her when she was little because they wanted my grandfather's money. Finally my grandfather's sister Wilhelmina Piotrowski said "enough!", that she would be in charge and take care of my mother. And she did. She taught my mother everything she knew about housekeeping, laundry, cooking. My mother even tied her sheets, pillow cases and towels in ribbons, she ironed everything even underwear.

My mother came to America in 1930 through the Pananma Canal and landed in San Pedro California. Her sister Amelia (Aunt Molly) and her husband Uncle Fred Dellenbach sponsored her to come to America.
She was 18 years old.

A special quality about my mother is that she was a hard worker, she was never idle. She loved working in her yard and won several awards for having the most beautiful landscaped yard when we lived in Westchester, which is a suburb of Los Angeles. She also did a lot of hand work, crocheting, embroidery as she would watch television and even before we had television. She loved to can fruit, chicken etc. She taught me many great and wonderful things even when she was so sick in bed as I was growing up. Her hands were busy even up until the time she passed away. One of my mother's traditions that is still being carried on by my daughter, Cindy, and my niece, Jennifer, and by myself, are her crocheted potholders and her Streusel Kuchen.

One of the things she would tell us children when we would fight or have an argument, was to love one another and that the day would come when we would cry for each other because we would not live close together and we would miss each other and we would want to take away the hurt if one of us was sick or having a problem. Another phrase she would always say was "ach du meine gita!" which means "oh my gosh!" in English, and "If you would be so kind... "

She always wore a dress, nylons, shoes and an apron, and always had a hankey or kleenex in her apron pocket. I guess to wipe away our running noses. She loved fashion and was very clean on herself, but we did not have a lot of money as we were living in a time of the 2nd world war. She knew how to save and make a dollar stretch. She was a good wife and mother always striving to do the right thing for her family. We have a very different taste in shoes and I never liked her choice of shoes even in her later life.

A Little About me

I was born in January on a very cold and wintery day in South Gate California. The water pipes froze in the Los Angeles area at that time. I born premature and only weighed 4 lbs. They put mason jars filled with warm water in my bassinet to keep me warm. I was born into a very loving and happy family. My parents were immegrants from Germany. They both came here because of their love of the Gospel and THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTERDAY SAINTS.
At the time of my birth I had an older brother Rodney, who was 2 years old at that time. I had sleep apnea for almost 3 months and my dad would hold me all night when he came home from work because he was always afraid that I would not breath.

We lived in a spanish style house and I remember we had a wooden booth in our kitchen that was really high in the back and a wood table in the center which I can still see in my mind. It was painted a light green. This booth always seemed so cozy.

I especially remember that on Saturday's we would always go down to Brooklyn Avenue where the Jewish markets were and my parents would buy fresh herring and bring it home and my dad would pickle it and we would have pickled herring and boiled new potatoe with butter that night. And Saturdays where always the days we got ready for Sunday. Hair was washed and curled, shoes were polished everyone had a bath etc. My mom would roll are hair in these metal curlers and then we would ave to sit by the open oven door to dry our hair a little before we went to bed. My sister Rita and I really did not like sleeping on those curlers, they hurt you head a little but when we finally fell asleep we didn't notice them anymore. You just had to get your head comfortable on the pillow.

New Look

How do you like my new look. Cindy has been on the phone with me helping me learn how to do different things on my blog. I love it and I love her. I love this picture because of the winding paths and the colors of the flowers the purples, white, and the pinks. It reminds me of our curved driveway in Torrance with our big pots of Impatiens lining the driveway. We also had them on our patio in the backyard. They were always so beautiful plus the smell of our gardenia bush by the back door.

Compassionate Service

I am Compassionate Service Leader in our Ward and today has been one of those days of service for one of the sister's in our Ward. You are always happy and have such a peace within yourself when you are in the service of others. We brought Maribeth home with us after her procedure as she was still groggy and dizzy from the anethsia so we let her sleep and when she woke up for a short time I fixed her a chocolate shake and a piece of toast and then she went back to sleep. During the time she slept I worked on my day planner as I have neglected it for a couple of months and needed to put in my activities, appointments, birthdays etc. Later in the afternoon Ward went and picked up Makean from school and Lisa came over with a hamburger and fries for Makean's after school snack, what a sweetheart she is. Maribeths husband James, came later and we had dinner which was chili, crackers, bread, cheese and a tossed green salad and some homemade freezer Marionberry Jam. It was soooo good. That is the jam was goooood! Hope I can get some more Marionberries this year to make some more jam.

Everyone has gone home now and I am going to clean up the kitchen and get ready for bed.

Busy Morning With Maribeth Lee

It has been some very tense days the last 2 weeks as we have been with Maribeth in emergency and taking her to several doctors to see why she has so much pain in her stomach.

We picked her up at 9:00am this morning and took her to Dr. Wells for and Endoscopy. Everything is okay in her stomach but she has to have her gallbaldder removed. It is very sick. So here we go again. She will meet with the surgeons next week and they will decide when to do the surgery. We brought her home with us as there is no one home at her house and she is still groggy from the anthesia. Ward will pick up her son from school later this afternoon and bring him here for dinner.

Saturday daddy finally fixed my kitchen drawer that had been broken for about 3 weeks and it works wonderfully. I am so happy. He did such a great job! Thanks dad.

Got an e-mail form Timmy and he is doing great at BYU. He has a girlfriend named Sarah and she is half Indian and half white. She is from New Mexico. He spent time with his dad on his birthday and said he really enjoyed that time with him. Greg is in Alaska now taking care of all his projects there.

Ward just came in from trimming the tree in front of the house as the braches are getting really heavy with leaves and we don't want them to break when the monsoon winds come as the winds are very strong.

It is such a beautiful day. Just the right temperature and a little breeze. I do miss the wind that we always had when we lived in Torrance. It was always so refreshing and cool.

Conference was wonderful as usual and President Monson and President Ucthdorf both know my family on Mamu Minnie's side and Daddo Kurt's side. Some of the member's in Mamu's family are written in President Monson's journals about his associations with them and other German Saints when he would go to Germany. Loved President Hollands talk. He made it very clear to everyone, members and non-members who were listening to conference about what we believe.

President Monson is such a wonderful man. I remember being with him and President Hinckly in the Los Angeles Temple when I escorted them in the elevator up to the assembly room when they came to talk to all the temple workers during a Christmas devotional. They made you feel so special, such kindness and love for everyone. Ward was Presidnet Monson's sister's hometeacher for several years in Torrance California. She was not active and Ward asked President Monson what can we could do for her and he said, just love her. Such a love that he had for his sister.

We also saw Wayne VanTassell in the choir. He still looks great even with his gray hair and more filled out, as we all do as we get older. Cindy, be sure and tell him hello for me and dad when you e-mail him.

Kristin has been very sick with that virus that we all have had. She went to Urgent Care yesterday and she has an ear infection, sinus infection and cough. This virus is really bad this year and the antibiotics don't seem to clear is up very fast. I wonder if this came over from Asia.

I have made almost 100 hats for the Humanitarium Center. They are so pretty and some are so cute that I almost want to keep them all but know that there are those in very cold countries that can use them.