April 22, 2024 • 23 mins
Whenever I am asked, "Who has made an impact on your life?" my mind is drawn to my grandmother. My grandmother is a beautiful woman who had a significant impact on me as a homemaker, wife, mother, and grandmother.
In this episode, I share some insights into my grandmother's life (she lived to be 102!), the lessons she taught me, and the example she set for me on being a homemaker.
My hope is that this episode will remind us to cherish each moment, love generously, and reflect God's grace and love in everything we do.
Head over to ThankfulHomemaker.com for full show notes on all the links and resources mentioned in today's episode.
EP 145: The Influence of Godly Mothers and Grandmothers
Titus 2 Posts & Podcast at Thankful Homemaker
RESOURCES:
Join Thankful Homemaker for access to the Free Library of Resources
Follow ThankfulHomemaker on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest & Instagram
Join the Thankful Homemaker Facebook Group
Subscribe to the Podcast on Your Favorite App
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:06):
Welcome to the Thankful Homemaker podcast, a podcast to be an encouragement
and blessing to each other in the role God has called us to as women.
I'm so thankful you've stopped by, so grab yourself a coffee or tea and sit
with me a bit as we talk about how God's Word impacts every area of our lives as Christian women.
Hello, friend. I'm Marci Farrell from Thankful Homemaker, and I'm so glad to be with you today.
(00:31):
And I'm super excited to bring you a little bit of a more personal episode as
I'm sharing on the influence my grandmother had on my life.
Really for me as a young woman and wife and mother, her lessons were truly invaluable to me.
I am looking forward to sharing some of these with you and how they've shaped
my experience of marriage and motherhood and keeping of my home and being a grandmother.
(00:55):
And for now, I've titled this lesson, this episode, it's episode 160.
I've titled it Cherishing the Love of My Grandmother.
It may get changed as I put this together. But for now, as I'm recording it,
that's what I've titled it.
And before we get started, I want to share that I have a speaking event coming
up soon at the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
(01:16):
It's being held from May 2nd to 4th of 2024. I always put the date because I
never edit these to pull that out.
So just so you know if you're listening at a later date. But if you're not,
it's next week as this episode is coming out.
I'll have a booth there with a giveaway going on. So if you're down there,
please, please, please come see me.
I have two sessions to speak at, one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon.
(01:39):
If you're not registered, there's still time to attend if it works out for you
and your family. I'll put a link in the show notes for it with all the details.
My husband and my daughter and her family are going to be down there with me too.
I would so love to get in-person time with you. So come find me there in the exhibit hall.
So as we move into chatting about the influence my grandmother had on my life
(02:01):
and the lessons I learned from her example, I just want to share a bit of her
background to help you understand the context of her life and how it shaped the woman she became.
So my grandma, she overcame many adversities, and she was truly an example of
extraordinary strength.
She really had such an unwavering love and care for her family.
(02:24):
My grandma lived to be 102 years old before she passed away on April 22nd of 2014.
Her journey began on January 10th of 1912 in Sisek.
It was then part, I might get this wrong, I needed to research this a little
more, but at that time it was part of Austria-Hungary and then after the war
(02:45):
it became Yugoslavia and I could have that reversed, but basically today it's known as Croatia.
And my grandma spoke Croatian. That was what she spoke in our home.
Actually, I spoke it as a young girl because I lived with them,
which I'll get to in a little bit. But my grandma at the time,
she was born in her grandmother's house.
Her own grandmother delivered her. And that's a detail I didn't find out from
(03:07):
her directly, but from one of those little books that we give to our grandparents
to fill out about their lives.
It basically asks a question a day, and my grandma actually filled it out.
It makes me want to start and finish one of these books for my grandkiddos.
I really have loved having this special memory book from her and seeing the
answers in her handwriting.
(03:27):
And when she did it, my mom was obviously one of her daughters,
and then my mom had two other sisters.
So my grandma had, they had three daughters together.
And so I had this little memory book, and what I ended up doing were taking
pictures of all the pages and putting it together in a little mini photo album
to share with the other sisters and their families.
(03:47):
So I'll put a picture of that in the show notes. But.
Definitely. If you have one of those and you're a grandma, fill that little
book up for your kiddos because they're going to love it and really cherish that one day.
But my grandma, she came to America as a young girl.
They came across the ocean and she was born in January of 1912.
(04:09):
And they were going to come over in the Titanic, which would,
and this is a story I heard from family. So I'm thinking it's true.
But they didn't. They waited a little longer because my grandma was too young.
She was just a few months old when the Titanic was sailing.
So that would have quite changed the dynamics of our family situation.
(04:30):
But when they came across and they reached Ellis Island and they saw that Statue
of Liberty, they ended up living in New York for a bit.
And then they eventually made it to Cleveland, Ohio.
And that's where their home was. my grandmother outlived two husbands.
She raised three daughters with her first husband of 40 years,
my grandpa Frank, whom I so adored as a young girl.
(04:50):
I loved time with my grandpa.
My mom and I lived with my grandma and grandpa after my mom was divorced.
And even as such a young girl, they both had such a huge impact on and in my life.
I am so grateful that we were able to be with them in that season in their home
because my mama had to work outside the home.
So I was there with my grandma during the day and I just loved being with her.
(05:14):
She would take me to school. I would hang out with her.
I enjoyed spending time with the neighbors.
It was just a sweet little neighborhood there even.
When I was five, my mom remarried and my then stepfather ended up adopting me
as his own as my birth father gave up his parental rights.
So then we moved out of my my grandma's home. I was sad about that,
(05:37):
but excited to get to have a new dad in my life.
And we now had our own little family.
And about a year after my mom's remarriage, this was a very tragic event.
It occurred that it really remains very imprinted on my mind.
My grandparents came to pick me up to take me to my aunt's house.
And my mom had just given birth to my brother. So they, her and my dad were staying home.
(06:02):
My grandfather was driving. And And as we were just around the corner from my
home, my grandfather suffered a fatal heart attack and my grandma quickly grabbed
the steering wheel. She got us to the side of the road.
I don't remember everything, but I do remember running home to tell my mom what
happened. I was crying all the way home. People on the street were stopping me and I just...
(06:22):
Running and crying and saying I had to get home and get to my mom.
I don't even remember how the ambulance got there.
I was, at that time, I was six years old. And this memory is always so vivid
in my mind. I can see the people's faces.
I can remember what I was wearing. I still tear up at times when I think about it.
My grandpa's sudden death left a deep void in my life.
(06:44):
And I know this episode is about my grandma, but he was such a strong father
figure in my life in those younger years when we live with them,
and I think about him so often.
There's so much more I can share about my grandma even here as I'm walking through this.
Just that little book that I had, it was fun to kind of revisit it as I was
putting this episode together.
Like my grandma had 12 brothers and sisters, and five of them died in infancy.
(07:08):
My grandma's nickname was Katz. Her name was Catherine, and so her nickname
was Katz, spelled with a K.
Her nickname was spelled K-A-T-Z, is how she put it in the little book,
and her best friend Marie gave it to her.
I love this because her favorite meal was pork with potato dumplings and sauerkraut,
and it's been a favorite in my home because of her, and we have pretty much
(07:30):
every New Year's Day, we have that meal.
She met my grandpa Frank, her first husband. She was married to him for 40 years.
She was married to her second husband, Kaber, for I want to say over 25 years.
She outlived them both, but she met my grandpa Grandpa Frank,
her first husband, on a blind date when she was 17.
He then became her boyfriend, and there we go. They got married,
(07:51):
and there they were 40 years later.
She loved school. She loved acting in school plays. She enjoyed English,
and math was her least favorite subject.
Her walk to high school was over four miles one way.
Okay, I'd be like a little grumbly about that one, especially in the winter, huh?
Grandma was the oldest in her family, and she would tell me this story about
(08:12):
how they would all bathe in the same tub, like one at a time.
You know, they would take turns, but because she was the oldest, she went last.
And I know for me, like the thought of that bathwater always grossed me out. It still does today.
I'm so grateful for my shower and for running water in my home.
She had two outfits for school.
She didn't have any toys. That was an interesting fact of her life.
(08:36):
She worked hard helping her mother in the home, and then obviously with the other children.
My grandma so loved her mother, and she cared for her in her home in my great-grandma's later years.
She took grandma into her home. And one of the questions in the book was,
did you ever envy anyone or anything?
And she said, and I know that as I'm stating this, because I'm going to get
(08:58):
to some other aspects yet of her life, But she said she envied nothing because
she always thought she had everything.
She also had a really great love for her grandmother.
I could keep going on here, but I do want to share some lessons that my grandma
Catherine that had that I learned from her that really that I brought into my
marriage and mothering and now my grandmothering even.
(09:19):
I didn't come to faith in Christ, and I know I've shared this a zillion times,
until I was in my mid-30s. So I'd already been married for a bit.
I had my children. So it was really good for me to have an example of a woman
who loved caring for her home and family. And she loved her husband.
And even after my grandpa Frank passed away, she just talked about him so lovingly.
(09:40):
What I do want to share, and this is something that has been hard for me about
my grandma, is that she never professed Christ as far as I knew.
As I shared earlier, she lived to be 102.
She lived her final moments in a nursing home. We shared the gospel with her
many times, and she always listened with kindness, but didn't seem to have an
open heart toward the Lord.
(10:01):
And my hope is that others shared with her as they crossed her paths there in
that nursing home, and that she repented and believed before she passed away. way.
I hope that I will see her in heaven, but I don't have any assurance of that.
Although she was not a Christian and she wasn't raised in a Christian home,
my grandfather actually had some issues with the church.
(10:24):
And it was probably the Catholic church, I'm thinking, just because that was their background.
And he really didn't allow them to go to church. He actually had that in one of her entries there.
But what she was raised in at that time was a Judeo-Christian Christian era,
when Judeo-Christian values were common and accepted in the culture at that
time, and the role of a wife and mother, it wasn't questioned.
(10:46):
So even though my grandmother wasn't a believer, as far as I know,
there are areas that I can learn from her still.
Just thinking things here, like basic homekeeping skills can be modeled and
taught, keeping a schedule, cooking meals, caring and loving on your family.
So even though my grandmother couldn't teach me the important things I needed
to know as a Christian woman.
(11:07):
I want this to be clear as I'm sharing this episode. So she couldn't teach me
about God and his world and his word and his ways.
There was still much I could learn from her example in areas really that did line up with scripture.
So when I came to Christ, I had lovely models put before me of Titus to women.
(11:28):
My mother -in-law, my husband's mama being one that I'm still so grateful to
have had her influence in my life as a wife and a mother and in my walk with the Lord.
I do have some posts on Titus 2 and also the influence of godly mothers and
grandmothers that I'm going to link in the show notes for this episode too.
They may be a good listen or read after this one.
(11:49):
If you put in Titus 2 in the search bar of my blog, you can find them too.
Use the search bar, my friend, if you're looking for a specific topic,
I use my search bar on my blog to find things.
So here's some lessons that I learned from my dear grandmother.
She loved her family and she would do anything for them.
She housed and helped so many family members out in so many ways.
(12:13):
Grandma was never too busy for you and she always made you feel like you were
the most important person in the room.
Taking care of her home, it was a joy. I loved listening to her singing as she
cleaned the house or was in the kitchen cooking.
I never heard her complain about the work in her home.
She'd put that apron on and just go to work with such great joy and a big smile on her face.
(12:36):
Her mother lived with her, also along with my mother and me and many others,
and she cared for her mom for many years.
Grandma had a multi-generational view of family. family, there was always time to sit and chat.
I can remember sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea with lots of sugar
and cream was a favorite for me. Actually, it was usually milk.
(12:58):
She just would fill my cup of tea with sugar and milk, and we would have such
a special time where she'd bake some cookies or we'd have a piece of cake together,
and she'd just sit there at that kitchen table with me, and we would just chat,
and I really enjoyed that.
There was never a doubt about the love that she had for my grandfather.
They were crazy about each other. She spoke so lovingly about him.
(13:19):
And I so appreciated that even after he was gone, she modeled for me how to love my husband well.
And I have to say this again and again, I don't ever remember her hearing,
I don't remember hearing her complain about anything.
So she also encouraged my love of reading and my children's love of reading
as books were a favorite gift from her.
(13:41):
Grandma always wrote her name and the date in them when she gave a gift.
And I have so appreciated carrying on that tradition for my children and grandchildren.
I still love opening. I can pull a children's book off my shelf to read to my
grandkids now, and I can see that it was a gift from grandma either to me,
those are about falling apart, but or to my own children. And I just really love that.
(14:04):
I'm probably going to use the word love a lot today, so I apologize ahead of time here.
She ran a home on a really tight budget. You would have thought they were very
comfortable by the way they lived, but my grandma, she knew how to stretch a dollar.
They lived with one car, and she would drive my grandpa to work if she needed the car that day.
I remember so many mornings as a little girl, her getting me up early in the
(14:26):
morning, and I'd crawl in the backseat in my pajamas as we took grandpa to work.
Grandma stayed physically active, and she was always a go-getter from the time
her feet hit the floor in the morning. I remember her exercising,
like jump ropes and hula hoops.
And I want to say, and I wanted to look up his name, but I believe it was Jack
LaLanne that she'd watched his TV show.
(14:47):
There weren't videos back then. I was about ready to say videos, but TV show.
Grandma loved to open her home to others. Throughout her lifetime,
she shared her home and cared for so many numerous relatives,
including some of her siblings, her grandchildren.
I mean, I was one of them. when her mother needed more care.
My grandfather built a bathroom on the first floor to accommodate her living with them.
(15:09):
Grandma's life was just one that modeled self-sacrifice, and I just knew as
a little girl growing up in her home that I was well loved.
I really loved and felt secure being in her home.
She instilled in me a love of cooking for my family. I am so thankful for those
many recipes she passed on to me over the years.
I still love pulling those little three-by-five cards out and seen her handwriting on them.
(15:33):
I don't sing when I cook like she did, but I always have favorite music on in
the background. I may sing it to myself, but I'm not usually the out loud singer.
She was always dressed first thing in the morning. I don't ever remember her.
I don't remember her sitting around in her pajamas. I think about that a lot.
She was a blessing to me as a new wife. I knew as a young bride that I could
(15:57):
call her for anything from cooking to marriage advice.
Now, you have to remember, as a young bride, I was not a believer yet.
I was so happy to have my grandma to talk to.
Even then, I spoke to her every day for years until her health was still good and she could do that.
It got a little harder as she was getting towards the end of life.
I so, so miss those calls. calls, she would be so concerned if we did miss a day.
(16:22):
She would make sure to call me to make sure everything was okay,
and I can hear her voice on the phone.
She'd be like, honey, are you okay? I didn't hear from you today.
She called me honey, and I loved that.
We moved out of state after my Dougie and I were married about three years.
We are originally from Cleveland, Ohio, both of us, And then we moved to Wisconsin
(16:44):
when Doug took a job up here.
And so I didn't get to see her as often. But I was so thankful for phone time with her.
She always had time for me. And she was always so delighted whenever we called or visited.
I love coming to her house because she would be really any kind of,
didn't matter what the weather was, she'd be waiting outside for us when we arrived.
(17:04):
And when we left, she would just stay outside and blow us kisses and wave at
our car as we pulled down the road. Sweet memories.
Always from Grandma. Lots of hugs and kisses, and I love yous. Always.
Special treats were always awaiting our arrival, and my kiddos always remember
when they were little her having those cheese balls.
They're sort of like cheese puffs. They used to come like a big tub.
(17:27):
You can still get them at the store,
but she always had those ready for them when they came over,
and she'd set a little table in their little tiny living room because this was
now with her second marriage,
with my second grandpa, with Grandpa Caber, so that's who the The kids knew
and they just had a little place that they rented and she'd have this little
table and she'd put the bowl out and have it all set up for my kiddos when they came over.
(17:49):
And grandma always had pleasant or kind words to say.
Sleepovers were a favorite. I so enjoyed doing that as a young girl.
She'd get me and maybe another cousin or two over and we just loved to play
there and sleep over or be in her basement or whatever that was.
Actually one of my favorite memories is
my cousins and I back in the day when
(18:12):
grandparents had false teeth and they had those little containers I
just remember my cousins and I like opening those containers and looking
at their teeth like when we were in there brushing our teeth and just kind of
giggling we didn't touch them or anything but it was just like a funny thing
to see grandma never missed a birthday card to send out to anyone she had all
the family's birthdays and she was such a a good card sender.
(18:36):
And as I look at her life, as I'm kind of closing out here, and I look at the
women of today, sometimes I see the simpleness of that time,
that the role of a mother, it was cherished, and women had joy taking care of their families.
And I'm not saying that as some kind of blanket statement, but for me at least,
the women that were in my young life at that time seemed to love being able
(18:58):
to be home and care for their families.
It was really taught because it was modeled so it truly was caught.
The era of feminism, it really changed that. And it's just so sad to me that
we don't have more women like my grandmother who didn't question their role.
They just lived it out beautifully.
And if I remember, I'm going to link to a blog post I have titled The History of Modern Feminism.
(19:21):
I will link to that. I really want to turn that one into a podcast and work on it a little more.
But grandma wrote in that memory book regarding what she wanted to be when she
grew up? That was one of the questions.
And she wrote, a wife and mother, and she said and stated what she said in that order.
So she wanted to be a wife and a mother in that order.
(19:43):
As Christian women, we have the joy of the Lord in everything we do.
I think about that often as I might begrudgingly go about a task and think,
my grandmother, who didn't have Jesus, would have done this with joy and pleasure,
and I have Jesus, so why am I going about it with a bad attitude?
Do we overthink things sometimes in our minds? Do we think we deserve something
(20:05):
better or more fulfilling?
And when I say that, then where does our contentment lie?
I pray, my friend, that we find our contentment in Christ and who He has designed
us to be, and we go about our day with great joy and love, knowing that if you
have repented of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus, think about that.
(20:26):
You've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. it.
You've been given the gift of eternity, eternal life.
That should cause us great joy. And we've been given the gift of Jesus.
So that should give us joy in taking care of those that he has given to us as a gift.
My husband and my children and my grandchildren, they're a gift to me.
Do I view them as gifts from the Lord? Do my interactions with them reflect
(20:51):
God's grace and forgiveness and unchanging love?
How we treat and respond to others is a powerful testament Testament,
to our faith and what we believe.
It is in the day-to-day routines, the trials, and the mundane tasks where our
Christianity, that's where it's primarily lived out.
I know I say this many times, but it's a reminder we all need.
(21:14):
Because it's in these moments when we need to be reminded that if we're in Christ,
we're enabled by the work of the Spirit in us to choose patience over frustration,
to choose kindness over anger, and forgiveness over grudges.
We're able to serve with hearts filled with joy and thankfulness.
Is I so pray that we cherish each moment and that we love generously.
(21:36):
My grandmother had a tremendous impact on my life and her love and dedication
to her family really shaped a lot of who I am today even.
I so wish she would have come to know Christ and that she truly could have been
that Titus II woman to me and to her other granddaughters.
And I will always be so grateful for the lessons she taught me and her love for me.
(21:57):
And I pray that I can have an eternal impact on the lives of my children and
grandchildren, but my impact for Christ, it's going to be lost if I do it without love.
The gospel and its message must always be my priority, but it must be shared
and lived out in a home where there is love for Christ and love for one another.
(22:17):
John 13, 34 reminds us, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. mother.
Thank you for being with me on a bit more personal episode today.
Mother's Day isn't too far away as I'm recording this, and it's just been on
my mind to share this one.
And I'm so reminded, and I want to remind you, that Jesus truly is enough always.
(22:42):
Thank you so much for your time today. The full show notes are at the blog,
and I've shared some pictures of my grandma in the show notes,
so I hope you'll go over and take a peek at them.
And also, if you'd like a more biblical view on the importance of the influence
of godly mothers and grandmothers, please take a moment to listen into episode
145 on the influence of godly mothers and grandmothers.
(23:03):
It'll be linked in the show notes. You can find it on whatever podcast catcher
app you listen into too, so you can check it out there.
And I do pray, my friend, that you have a very blessed week.
Music.
Music.
(00:06):
Welcome to the Thankful Homemaker podcast, a podcast to be an encouragement
and blessing to each other in the role God has called us to as women.
I'm so thankful you've stopped by, so grab yourself a coffee or tea and sit
with me a bit as we talk about how God's Word impacts every area of our lives as Christian women.
Hello, friend. I'm Marci Farrell from Thankful Homemaker, and I'm so glad to be with you today.
(00:31):
And I'm super excited to bring you a little bit of a more personal episode as
I'm sharing on the influence my grandmother had on my life.
Really for me as a young woman and wife and mother, her lessons were truly invaluable to me.
I am looking forward to sharing some of these with you and how they've shaped
my experience of marriage and motherhood and keeping of my home and being a grandmother.
(00:55):
And for now, I've titled this lesson, this episode, it's episode 160.
I've titled it Cherishing the Love of My Grandmother.
It may get changed as I put this together. But for now, as I'm recording it,
that's what I've titled it.
And before we get started, I want to share that I have a speaking event coming
up soon at the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
(01:16):
It's being held from May 2nd to 4th of 2024. I always put the date because I
never edit these to pull that out.
So just so you know if you're listening at a later date. But if you're not,
it's next week as this episode is coming out.
I'll have a booth there with a giveaway going on. So if you're down there,
please, please, please come see me.
I have two sessions to speak at, one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon.
(01:39):
If you're not registered, there's still time to attend if it works out for you
and your family. I'll put a link in the show notes for it with all the details.
My husband and my daughter and her family are going to be down there with me too.
I would so love to get in-person time with you. So come find me there in the exhibit hall.
So as we move into chatting about the influence my grandmother had on my life
(02:01):
and the lessons I learned from her example, I just want to share a bit of her
background to help you understand the context of her life and how it shaped the woman she became.
So my grandma, she overcame many adversities, and she was truly an example of
extraordinary strength.
She really had such an unwavering love and care for her family.
(02:24):
My grandma lived to be 102 years old before she passed away on April 22nd of 2014.
Her journey began on January 10th of 1912 in Sisek.
It was then part, I might get this wrong, I needed to research this a little
more, but at that time it was part of Austria-Hungary and then after the war
(02:45):
it became Yugoslavia and I could have that reversed, but basically today it's known as Croatia.
And my grandma spoke Croatian. That was what she spoke in our home.
Actually, I spoke it as a young girl because I lived with them,
which I'll get to in a little bit. But my grandma at the time,
she was born in her grandmother's house.
Her own grandmother delivered her. And that's a detail I didn't find out from
(03:07):
her directly, but from one of those little books that we give to our grandparents
to fill out about their lives.
It basically asks a question a day, and my grandma actually filled it out.
It makes me want to start and finish one of these books for my grandkiddos.
I really have loved having this special memory book from her and seeing the
answers in her handwriting.
(03:27):
And when she did it, my mom was obviously one of her daughters,
and then my mom had two other sisters.
So my grandma had, they had three daughters together.
And so I had this little memory book, and what I ended up doing were taking
pictures of all the pages and putting it together in a little mini photo album
to share with the other sisters and their families.
(03:47):
So I'll put a picture of that in the show notes. But.
Definitely. If you have one of those and you're a grandma, fill that little
book up for your kiddos because they're going to love it and really cherish that one day.
But my grandma, she came to America as a young girl.
They came across the ocean and she was born in January of 1912.
(04:09):
And they were going to come over in the Titanic, which would,
and this is a story I heard from family. So I'm thinking it's true.
But they didn't. They waited a little longer because my grandma was too young.
She was just a few months old when the Titanic was sailing.
So that would have quite changed the dynamics of our family situation.
(04:30):
But when they came across and they reached Ellis Island and they saw that Statue
of Liberty, they ended up living in New York for a bit.
And then they eventually made it to Cleveland, Ohio.
And that's where their home was. my grandmother outlived two husbands.
She raised three daughters with her first husband of 40 years,
my grandpa Frank, whom I so adored as a young girl.
(04:50):
I loved time with my grandpa.
My mom and I lived with my grandma and grandpa after my mom was divorced.
And even as such a young girl, they both had such a huge impact on and in my life.
I am so grateful that we were able to be with them in that season in their home
because my mama had to work outside the home.
So I was there with my grandma during the day and I just loved being with her.
(05:14):
She would take me to school. I would hang out with her.
I enjoyed spending time with the neighbors.
It was just a sweet little neighborhood there even.
When I was five, my mom remarried and my then stepfather ended up adopting me
as his own as my birth father gave up his parental rights.
So then we moved out of my my grandma's home. I was sad about that,
(05:37):
but excited to get to have a new dad in my life.
And we now had our own little family.
And about a year after my mom's remarriage, this was a very tragic event.
It occurred that it really remains very imprinted on my mind.
My grandparents came to pick me up to take me to my aunt's house.
And my mom had just given birth to my brother. So they, her and my dad were staying home.
(06:02):
My grandfather was driving. And And as we were just around the corner from my
home, my grandfather suffered a fatal heart attack and my grandma quickly grabbed
the steering wheel. She got us to the side of the road.
I don't remember everything, but I do remember running home to tell my mom what
happened. I was crying all the way home. People on the street were stopping me and I just...
(06:22):
Running and crying and saying I had to get home and get to my mom.
I don't even remember how the ambulance got there.
I was, at that time, I was six years old. And this memory is always so vivid
in my mind. I can see the people's faces.
I can remember what I was wearing. I still tear up at times when I think about it.
My grandpa's sudden death left a deep void in my life.
(06:44):
And I know this episode is about my grandma, but he was such a strong father
figure in my life in those younger years when we live with them,
and I think about him so often.
There's so much more I can share about my grandma even here as I'm walking through this.
Just that little book that I had, it was fun to kind of revisit it as I was
putting this episode together.
Like my grandma had 12 brothers and sisters, and five of them died in infancy.
(07:08):
My grandma's nickname was Katz. Her name was Catherine, and so her nickname
was Katz, spelled with a K.
Her nickname was spelled K-A-T-Z, is how she put it in the little book,
and her best friend Marie gave it to her.
I love this because her favorite meal was pork with potato dumplings and sauerkraut,
and it's been a favorite in my home because of her, and we have pretty much
(07:30):
every New Year's Day, we have that meal.
She met my grandpa Frank, her first husband. She was married to him for 40 years.
She was married to her second husband, Kaber, for I want to say over 25 years.
She outlived them both, but she met my grandpa Grandpa Frank,
her first husband, on a blind date when she was 17.
He then became her boyfriend, and there we go. They got married,
(07:51):
and there they were 40 years later.
She loved school. She loved acting in school plays. She enjoyed English,
and math was her least favorite subject.
Her walk to high school was over four miles one way.
Okay, I'd be like a little grumbly about that one, especially in the winter, huh?
Grandma was the oldest in her family, and she would tell me this story about
(08:12):
how they would all bathe in the same tub, like one at a time.
You know, they would take turns, but because she was the oldest, she went last.
And I know for me, like the thought of that bathwater always grossed me out. It still does today.
I'm so grateful for my shower and for running water in my home.
She had two outfits for school.
She didn't have any toys. That was an interesting fact of her life.
(08:36):
She worked hard helping her mother in the home, and then obviously with the other children.
My grandma so loved her mother, and she cared for her in her home in my great-grandma's later years.
She took grandma into her home. And one of the questions in the book was,
did you ever envy anyone or anything?
And she said, and I know that as I'm stating this, because I'm going to get
(08:58):
to some other aspects yet of her life, But she said she envied nothing because
she always thought she had everything.
She also had a really great love for her grandmother.
I could keep going on here, but I do want to share some lessons that my grandma
Catherine that had that I learned from her that really that I brought into my
marriage and mothering and now my grandmothering even.
(09:19):
I didn't come to faith in Christ, and I know I've shared this a zillion times,
until I was in my mid-30s. So I'd already been married for a bit.
I had my children. So it was really good for me to have an example of a woman
who loved caring for her home and family. And she loved her husband.
And even after my grandpa Frank passed away, she just talked about him so lovingly.
(09:40):
What I do want to share, and this is something that has been hard for me about
my grandma, is that she never professed Christ as far as I knew.
As I shared earlier, she lived to be 102.
She lived her final moments in a nursing home. We shared the gospel with her
many times, and she always listened with kindness, but didn't seem to have an
open heart toward the Lord.
(10:01):
And my hope is that others shared with her as they crossed her paths there in
that nursing home, and that she repented and believed before she passed away. way.
I hope that I will see her in heaven, but I don't have any assurance of that.
Although she was not a Christian and she wasn't raised in a Christian home,
my grandfather actually had some issues with the church.
(10:24):
And it was probably the Catholic church, I'm thinking, just because that was their background.
And he really didn't allow them to go to church. He actually had that in one of her entries there.
But what she was raised in at that time was a Judeo-Christian Christian era,
when Judeo-Christian values were common and accepted in the culture at that
time, and the role of a wife and mother, it wasn't questioned.
(10:46):
So even though my grandmother wasn't a believer, as far as I know,
there are areas that I can learn from her still.
Just thinking things here, like basic homekeeping skills can be modeled and
taught, keeping a schedule, cooking meals, caring and loving on your family.
So even though my grandmother couldn't teach me the important things I needed
to know as a Christian woman.
(11:07):
I want this to be clear as I'm sharing this episode. So she couldn't teach me
about God and his world and his word and his ways.
There was still much I could learn from her example in areas really that did line up with scripture.
So when I came to Christ, I had lovely models put before me of Titus to women.
(11:28):
My mother -in-law, my husband's mama being one that I'm still so grateful to
have had her influence in my life as a wife and a mother and in my walk with the Lord.
I do have some posts on Titus 2 and also the influence of godly mothers and
grandmothers that I'm going to link in the show notes for this episode too.
They may be a good listen or read after this one.
(11:49):
If you put in Titus 2 in the search bar of my blog, you can find them too.
Use the search bar, my friend, if you're looking for a specific topic,
I use my search bar on my blog to find things.
So here's some lessons that I learned from my dear grandmother.
She loved her family and she would do anything for them.
She housed and helped so many family members out in so many ways.
(12:13):
Grandma was never too busy for you and she always made you feel like you were
the most important person in the room.
Taking care of her home, it was a joy. I loved listening to her singing as she
cleaned the house or was in the kitchen cooking.
I never heard her complain about the work in her home.
She'd put that apron on and just go to work with such great joy and a big smile on her face.
(12:36):
Her mother lived with her, also along with my mother and me and many others,
and she cared for her mom for many years.
Grandma had a multi-generational view of family. family, there was always time to sit and chat.
I can remember sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea with lots of sugar
and cream was a favorite for me. Actually, it was usually milk.
(12:58):
She just would fill my cup of tea with sugar and milk, and we would have such
a special time where she'd bake some cookies or we'd have a piece of cake together,
and she'd just sit there at that kitchen table with me, and we would just chat,
and I really enjoyed that.
There was never a doubt about the love that she had for my grandfather.
They were crazy about each other. She spoke so lovingly about him.
(13:19):
And I so appreciated that even after he was gone, she modeled for me how to love my husband well.
And I have to say this again and again, I don't ever remember her hearing,
I don't remember hearing her complain about anything.
So she also encouraged my love of reading and my children's love of reading
as books were a favorite gift from her.
(13:41):
Grandma always wrote her name and the date in them when she gave a gift.
And I have so appreciated carrying on that tradition for my children and grandchildren.
I still love opening. I can pull a children's book off my shelf to read to my
grandkids now, and I can see that it was a gift from grandma either to me,
those are about falling apart, but or to my own children. And I just really love that.
(14:04):
I'm probably going to use the word love a lot today, so I apologize ahead of time here.
She ran a home on a really tight budget. You would have thought they were very
comfortable by the way they lived, but my grandma, she knew how to stretch a dollar.
They lived with one car, and she would drive my grandpa to work if she needed the car that day.
I remember so many mornings as a little girl, her getting me up early in the
(14:26):
morning, and I'd crawl in the backseat in my pajamas as we took grandpa to work.
Grandma stayed physically active, and she was always a go-getter from the time
her feet hit the floor in the morning. I remember her exercising,
like jump ropes and hula hoops.
And I want to say, and I wanted to look up his name, but I believe it was Jack
LaLanne that she'd watched his TV show.
(14:47):
There weren't videos back then. I was about ready to say videos, but TV show.
Grandma loved to open her home to others. Throughout her lifetime,
she shared her home and cared for so many numerous relatives,
including some of her siblings, her grandchildren.
I mean, I was one of them. when her mother needed more care.
My grandfather built a bathroom on the first floor to accommodate her living with them.
(15:09):
Grandma's life was just one that modeled self-sacrifice, and I just knew as
a little girl growing up in her home that I was well loved.
I really loved and felt secure being in her home.
She instilled in me a love of cooking for my family. I am so thankful for those
many recipes she passed on to me over the years.
I still love pulling those little three-by-five cards out and seen her handwriting on them.
(15:33):
I don't sing when I cook like she did, but I always have favorite music on in
the background. I may sing it to myself, but I'm not usually the out loud singer.
She was always dressed first thing in the morning. I don't ever remember her.
I don't remember her sitting around in her pajamas. I think about that a lot.
She was a blessing to me as a new wife. I knew as a young bride that I could
(15:57):
call her for anything from cooking to marriage advice.
Now, you have to remember, as a young bride, I was not a believer yet.
I was so happy to have my grandma to talk to.
Even then, I spoke to her every day for years until her health was still good and she could do that.
It got a little harder as she was getting towards the end of life.
I so, so miss those calls. calls, she would be so concerned if we did miss a day.
(16:22):
She would make sure to call me to make sure everything was okay,
and I can hear her voice on the phone.
She'd be like, honey, are you okay? I didn't hear from you today.
She called me honey, and I loved that.
We moved out of state after my Dougie and I were married about three years.
We are originally from Cleveland, Ohio, both of us, And then we moved to Wisconsin
(16:44):
when Doug took a job up here.
And so I didn't get to see her as often. But I was so thankful for phone time with her.
She always had time for me. And she was always so delighted whenever we called or visited.
I love coming to her house because she would be really any kind of,
didn't matter what the weather was, she'd be waiting outside for us when we arrived.
(17:04):
And when we left, she would just stay outside and blow us kisses and wave at
our car as we pulled down the road. Sweet memories.
Always from Grandma. Lots of hugs and kisses, and I love yous. Always.
Special treats were always awaiting our arrival, and my kiddos always remember
when they were little her having those cheese balls.
They're sort of like cheese puffs. They used to come like a big tub.
(17:27):
You can still get them at the store,
but she always had those ready for them when they came over,
and she'd set a little table in their little tiny living room because this was
now with her second marriage,
with my second grandpa, with Grandpa Caber, so that's who the The kids knew
and they just had a little place that they rented and she'd have this little
table and she'd put the bowl out and have it all set up for my kiddos when they came over.
(17:49):
And grandma always had pleasant or kind words to say.
Sleepovers were a favorite. I so enjoyed doing that as a young girl.
She'd get me and maybe another cousin or two over and we just loved to play
there and sleep over or be in her basement or whatever that was.
Actually one of my favorite memories is
my cousins and I back in the day when
(18:12):
grandparents had false teeth and they had those little containers I
just remember my cousins and I like opening those containers and looking
at their teeth like when we were in there brushing our teeth and just kind of
giggling we didn't touch them or anything but it was just like a funny thing
to see grandma never missed a birthday card to send out to anyone she had all
the family's birthdays and she was such a a good card sender.
(18:36):
And as I look at her life, as I'm kind of closing out here, and I look at the
women of today, sometimes I see the simpleness of that time,
that the role of a mother, it was cherished, and women had joy taking care of their families.
And I'm not saying that as some kind of blanket statement, but for me at least,
the women that were in my young life at that time seemed to love being able
(18:58):
to be home and care for their families.
It was really taught because it was modeled so it truly was caught.
The era of feminism, it really changed that. And it's just so sad to me that
we don't have more women like my grandmother who didn't question their role.
They just lived it out beautifully.
And if I remember, I'm going to link to a blog post I have titled The History of Modern Feminism.
(19:21):
I will link to that. I really want to turn that one into a podcast and work on it a little more.
But grandma wrote in that memory book regarding what she wanted to be when she
grew up? That was one of the questions.
And she wrote, a wife and mother, and she said and stated what she said in that order.
So she wanted to be a wife and a mother in that order.
(19:43):
As Christian women, we have the joy of the Lord in everything we do.
I think about that often as I might begrudgingly go about a task and think,
my grandmother, who didn't have Jesus, would have done this with joy and pleasure,
and I have Jesus, so why am I going about it with a bad attitude?
Do we overthink things sometimes in our minds? Do we think we deserve something
(20:05):
better or more fulfilling?
And when I say that, then where does our contentment lie?
I pray, my friend, that we find our contentment in Christ and who He has designed
us to be, and we go about our day with great joy and love, knowing that if you
have repented of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus, think about that.
(20:26):
You've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. it.
You've been given the gift of eternity, eternal life.
That should cause us great joy. And we've been given the gift of Jesus.
So that should give us joy in taking care of those that he has given to us as a gift.
My husband and my children and my grandchildren, they're a gift to me.
Do I view them as gifts from the Lord? Do my interactions with them reflect
(20:51):
God's grace and forgiveness and unchanging love?
How we treat and respond to others is a powerful testament Testament,
to our faith and what we believe.
It is in the day-to-day routines, the trials, and the mundane tasks where our
Christianity, that's where it's primarily lived out.
I know I say this many times, but it's a reminder we all need.
(21:14):
Because it's in these moments when we need to be reminded that if we're in Christ,
we're enabled by the work of the Spirit in us to choose patience over frustration,
to choose kindness over anger, and forgiveness over grudges.
We're able to serve with hearts filled with joy and thankfulness.
Is I so pray that we cherish each moment and that we love generously.
(21:36):
My grandmother had a tremendous impact on my life and her love and dedication
to her family really shaped a lot of who I am today even.
I so wish she would have come to know Christ and that she truly could have been
that Titus II woman to me and to her other granddaughters.
And I will always be so grateful for the lessons she taught me and her love for me.
(21:57):
And I pray that I can have an eternal impact on the lives of my children and
grandchildren, but my impact for Christ, it's going to be lost if I do it without love.
The gospel and its message must always be my priority, but it must be shared
and lived out in a home where there is love for Christ and love for one another.
(22:17):
John 13, 34 reminds us, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. mother.
Thank you for being with me on a bit more personal episode today.
Mother's Day isn't too far away as I'm recording this, and it's just been on
my mind to share this one.
And I'm so reminded, and I want to remind you, that Jesus truly is enough always.
(22:42):
Thank you so much for your time today. The full show notes are at the blog,
and I've shared some pictures of my grandma in the show notes,
so I hope you'll go over and take a peek at them.
And also, if you'd like a more biblical view on the importance of the influence
of godly mothers and grandmothers, please take a moment to listen into episode
145 on the influence of godly mothers and grandmothers.
(23:03):
It'll be linked in the show notes. You can find it on whatever podcast catcher
app you listen into too, so you can check it out there.
And I do pray, my friend, that you have a very blessed week.
Music.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.