1948 Idaho by Florence A. Jansen

In 1948, after the rest of the Jansen family had moved to Washington State, Karl and I began building a house on property my parents deeded over to us. Karl worked for the railroad and there were always rumors of lay-offs. So we paid for everything as we got it . . a slow process.
We finally were able to move in and it seemed great, except we had no bathroom, yet. Then we had our 3rd child, Charles Reuben, named for his 2 grandfathers, Charles Jansen and Reuben Weeks. As soon as I went into labor G'ma Zoe hopped a bus in Kalama and headed for Nampa, Idaho. She was a lot of help to us as Susie was just past her 3rd year and Karen was a year and a half old.
When I started to give Chuckie his first bath G'ma Zoe said for me to sit down and she would do that. I was so nervous about her handling my precious son with her crippled hand and she knew it. She looked at me and said, "I have had 9 children and numerous grandchildren and have bathed them all and haven't dropped one, yet!". So, I settled down and she did a super job! She became more than a mother-in-law at that time. A very precious and wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and friend.