Clara Weddendorf Aufderheide: 119th Birthday Anniversary

Remembering Grandma

by Jim Aufderheide

The three children who stayed in New Ulm, Ruth, Jack and Buddy, and their families spent much time at Grandma’s house during our (the grandchildren's) childhood years. I always felt like I was home when I was at Grandma’s house. The families spent holidays there, enjoying being together in a warm, welcoming environment.

Until Grandma died in 1974, I never spent a Christmas Eve anywhere but at Grandma’s house. Even in the last several years of her life, when she lived in an apartment, her four children and their families would come home for Christmas Eve, and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and cousins would fill the house with stories shared, a warm, joyous time. [Karl and Clara's Family: Karl, Clara, Susan and Robert (Buddy) twins, John (Jack), and Carl (Carly) ca. 1930s]

Karl and Clara Aufderheide Family Portrait (193os): Karl, Clara, Ruth and Robert (twins), John, and Carl.

Grandma was an active person, involved in church groups at St. Paul’s, in various civic groups, and was always on the go. In 1954, on the occasion of the New Ulm centennial, she and her sister, Hertha, took a trip sponsored by a local travel agency back to the homeland. At the age of 66, away she went! She had a grand time...just one example of her adventurous spirit.

Grandma was always doing something; she was not an idler. She sewed, she quilted, she gardened, she did crossword puzzles, she tried painting, she read.

During the 50s, she took a community ed class in making pottery. In keeping with an active mind, she got her sons to take her to one of the Brickyard clay pits and she dug some clay. She took the clay to the instructor, Lloyd Marti, and asked whether it would work for making pottery. Lloyd helped her get the clay in shape, and Grandma made pots out of Brickyard clay (I still have one on my shelf.)!

Grandma loved flowers. The empty lot between her house and the house of A.P. Boock was a beautiful garden that she tended. During the summer there were always blooms, a veritable canvas outside her dining room window. I have fond memories of Grandma wandering around the yard with a flower in her hand. She would often pick one and carry it with her, a reminder of the beauty in her yard. Grandma loved wildflowers also. She and her son, Buddy, would spend many summer weekends in the woods or country ditches, looking for wildflowers. And she knew all their names!

Which leads to another facet of Grandma: she was a very intelligent person. She read always, books and newspapers. Grandma used the public library (Bert Ruemke next door worked there). She read the New Ulm Daily Journal and the Minneapolis paper daily, completing the crossword puzzles daily also. And she thought about what she read, was willing to discuss it, and had an opinion about it (and was not afraid to voice it!).

Finally, Grandma loved her family. She loved having her kids and grandkids about. She paid attention to what was going on in our lives, and talked to us about it. Grandma was a great listener and would interact with us all about our lives, and the world around us. What an absolutely great lady! I consider myself exceedingly fortunate to have been able to spend 25 years of my life around her...