Memory Jogging by Sondra Jansen/Erbe/Appel

It seems as though the stories you see here, jog the memory so another story is born. I love the stories that Uncle Karl and Aunt Florence have told here. They are stories that I have not heard before and I am so interested in how my relatives saw life as they were growing up. I really do not think I am the only one who is interested. So I hope to see others giving us their memories as they come to mind. I know each of us has a story and I know there are others who would like to read them. Good job Uncle karl and Aunt Florence and thanks for the memories.

Aunt Florence jogged a memory of mine about Grandma dropping everything to come to help her when little Chuckie was born!

While at the funeral of G'ma Zoe Jansen I was talking with G'pa Charlie Jansen and Mrs Sweet, who was a good friend from when they lived at Summit Lake, WA. He was telling us the story about G'ma pawning her wedding ring so she could have the money to go to Bremerton, WA to pick up my brother and I, so we would not have to stay with strangers when we were removed from the home by children services. Of course this was not acceptable to them because G'pa was put in an orphanage when he was a wee small child and was place in a farm home family when he was old enough to work on a farm. They did not want this to happen to any of their grandchildren, so they took us in. She dropped what she was doing and came to get us. She met our Grandmother Hoffman who took G'ma Zoe to the judge and had "custody" of us transferred to G'ma Zoe so she could take us back to their home in Star, ID. where we lived until my Dad and our new mother were out of the Navy and able to come take care of us. This all was taking place during WWII and when the war was over they were married and discharged from the service and on their way to Idaho. After we had been in Washington for some time, my Dad and G'pa went back to Idaho to retrieve the wedding rings. I'm sure that was probably something that G'pa insisted that my Dad do when he was able to raise enough money to get those rings back so G'ma could have them. It certainly was the right thing to do for her, since she was so giving and no one should take advantage of that. The story that G'pa told us was one that I had never heard before. Would have been nice to have known it BEFORE G'ma had passed so we could have thanked her. They were two very special people and will always live in my heart.