Grandma was the youngest Foster child that lived. According to Aunt Leda she was very spoiled. She went to the school that Aunt Leda taught and didn’t want to do what her sister told her to. Her mother let her stay home from school after that. I do not know how old she was when she left school. She did read and write and do ‘sums’. Grandma Ruedger was short and slight. She had a great capacity to love her children and grandchildren.

When we were visiting them it seemed to me she was always in the kitchen cooking or washing dishes. She always found time to fix hungry grandchildren bread and butter and brown sugar or she would take time to make powdered sugar frosting to put between graham crackers for us. She had a fondness for circus peanuts and always bought herself a bag of candy when the grocery truck came by. She would let me go into the little grocery store on wheels with her and pick out a treat for myself.

I never heard her be cross to a grandchild or scold in any way. In later years she would come to Kenney to visit us whenever she could get someone to either bring her in a car or come with her by bus. She and I slept together and I remember her rubbing my aching legs or talking softly to me when I went through a period of having trouble sleeping.

She had difficulty talking with Grandpa because he was so very deaf. Her soft voice was high and would get higher when she became frustrated if she couldn’t make him understand what she was trying to tell him.

Grandma had her own money from selling butter and eggs—but she would have to ask Grandpa for extra money besides. Once she asked me to ask Grandpa for money for a new coat that she needed. He handed the money over without a question.

When I was small one of my chief delights during our Michigan visit was to go out and ride on the workhorses whenever they were in the barnyard. I can remember that their backs were so broad that my legs stuck out straight on each side. One time Grandpa said, “I’ll have to get a riding horse for you, Louise.” After that for a long time I’d look for a riding horse every summer when we got there. Of course, there never was one and I soon outgrew my desire to ride the broad backed work horses.

Mother used to like to tell us about their lack of Christmas gifts when she was growing up. She said one time their dad promised them all a Christmas gift and how eagerly they awaited Christmas morning. How disappointed they all were when the gifts turned out to be a penny pencil apiece. Grandpa would not pay tuition for the older children to go to high school so just the younger ones got to go because by that time the school district was taking care of tuition.

Although Grandpa and Grandma Ruedger took care of Grandpa’s younger brothers and sisters after the death of their mother, the only one of them I knew was Uncle John. Leo was the son of his brother, Henry, and of course we knew Leo and his wife, Ora. I also met Leo’s brothers and sisters. Uncle John used to talk about his brother, Alexander and his family, who lived in Wisconsin. Their sister, Lydia, married a Chinese man and moved to Ohio. [She married a second time and was the owner of a farm and the Ford agency at Findlay, OH, at the time of her death]. Both Grandpa and Uncle John went to Ohio to settle her estate.

When Grandpa was young he had a jaw tooth extracted. Evidentially there had been damage done to the jawbone for the side of his face was sunken in. I used to wonder how he was able to shave. I was told he had a red beard even though the hair on his head was brown. His mother had had red hair.

Grandpa sometimes drove Dad around to see the farm. He had acreage in Gratiot County, the next county over. Here her kept cattle. There was a stream running through the place and one time we kids went wading and got our legs covered with leeches! When Grandpa was driving and would see something he wanted to point out to his passengers he let the car go in the direction he was pointing. We’d go down the ditch and up on the bank before Grandpa corrected himself and got back on the road with never a break in his conversation.

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