A big Happy Birthday in rememberance of Grandma :)
Winifred was born in 1908. The family lived in Angola, Indiana, where her father taught music at Tri-State University, and her mother played the organ. She grew up in the ‘twenties with her younger sister, Elizabeth. Her nickname was Skip, and her sister’s nickname was Lib or Libby. They played often at the Lake, where her parents had built a cottage, one of the first dwellings in that area since the displacement of the Native Americans. She learned to drive on a Ford Model-A, and attended DePauw University. In the ‘thirties she went on to nearly finish a Master’s degree in business at Columbia University, but left the program early to marry Lloyd. In Goshen, Indiana she taught in a one-room schoolhouse, while her husband worked on power lines for the electric company. She gave birth to two sons, Lewis Neal (Neal) and Lloyd Jr. (nicknamed Bo), but when Neal was just seven years old, her husband was electrocuted on the job, and she was left a widow. Not wanting any other man to tell her how to raise her sons, she managed on her own throughout the 1940's and 1950's and never remarried. She taught math at the local public school for 30 some years, meanwhile raising a few chickens, sheep and rabbits as she could. She was an expert cook and used only the purest butter, salt, and bacon fat as well as the freshest vegetables and meats. Some of her most remembered dishes include fried chicken and mashed potatoes with waxed beans, pancakes with fresh maple syrup, fresh bread, 10-boy lamb curry, and of course cinnamon roles from scratch. In her later years she traveled to Israel, China, and Europe before settling down at the Cottage on the Lake to cook for visitors and watch her grandchildren learn to swim. She was a hard worker and a devoted parent. She got her first gray hair at 60, raked her own leaves until she was eighty, and enjoyed life longer than anyone would have guessed. It was said by some that she had 9 lives, for she survived cancer, kidney failure, heart trouble, glaucoma, and even the quietness of living alone. She died peacefully, aged 93, with her sons close by.We remember her fondly, an honest and inspiring woman.
