Today, September 9, 2023, we're celebrating the 101 year birthday of Viola Mildred Strand Henrickson. Last year was her actual 100th birthday. Viola is one year older than the Walt Disney Company which is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.
Viola was born to Mildred and Carl Strand on September 9, 1922 in Allegan, Michigan. Viola was the only child of Carl and Mildred's 7 children to be born in a hospital, the others all being born at home with Mildred's mother Elnora acting as a midwife. Shortly after being born Mildred suffered from post partem depression and voluntarily checked into the Kalamazoo State Hospital. Older brother Howard went to live with his Bellingar grandparents and Viola was taken care of by neighbor Jay Treece and family. Viola slept in a dresser drawer. Mildred eventually came back home and got better with help from a local Native American medicine man.
In the 1930's Viola and her family moved to the Strand family farm. It was while she was living on this farm that as a teenager she met Raymond Henrickson, a local farmer. Ray and Viola started seeing each other and became engaged. They were married in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 20, 1940. On April 6, 1941 Viola was baptized into the Lutheran faith and confirmed as a member of the Sandhem Lutheran Church.
Ray and Viola lived on the Henrickson family farm Ray had taken over from his parents. Together Ray and Viola raised 8 children on the farm. There were 20 grandchildren, and even great grandchildren born before Viola passed away on December 8, 1999 at home. Viola raised children, cooked, cleaned, helped with farm chores and always had food on the table. Despite Ray saying her cooking wasn't as good as his mother's, Viola's children thought her cooking was pretty good, especially her pies and cookies. I can attest to the fact that the macaroni and cheese, and chicken and dumplings she made while visiting us in Florida once were the best I'd ever tasted. I always enjoyed any time I got to spend with her. One time while visiting her on the farm a phone solicitor called and said she had won a free prize. She said, Great, send it to me then. He said she had to pay for the shipping and handling. Viola huffed and said, "It's not free then, is it?!" and slammed down the phone. lol. I knew then I'd never have to worry about her being scammed. I also remember how she and Ray would sit and watch Jerry Springer every day and get a hoot out of the people who came on. She was definitely a treasure and continues to be missed.
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| Mildred and most likely Howard and Viola |
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| Mildred, with Viola standing to the left, Mildred's right. |
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| Viola and Milton |
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| Viola and Ray, and kids, having dinner with Carl and Mildred. |
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| Viola, 2nd from right, front row. With Carl and Mildred and brothers and sisters, circa 1970. Feel free to leave any stories about Viola down below. I know there are a lot of good ones out there. The prompt for this week was "prosperity". I think prosperity fits Viola. She brought a lot of happiness and joy to all who knew her. She may not have been prosperous in a financial sense, but she was prosperous in friends and family. |
We still miss mom, especially her pecan pies that she made every Christmas. Whenever she made cookies, us kids were always sticking our fingers in the bowl and eating the raw dough. She always said we ate more cookies than she baked
ReplyDeleteThat's probably true! 😄 Raw cookie dough is the best.
DeleteMy memories of aunt viola was she was always busy. I never saw her sit and watch TV or relax except for at family reunions where she clearly loved visiting with her extended family. My favorite memory was she always would shout 'YOU DAMN KIDS!" Especially at the boys it seemed when they were doing something they shouldn't have been lol. My favorite summer vacation time was always the week or 2 at the Henrickson farm. Even after a couple of wrecks on old Lady the horse, getting chased by mean cows or getting shocked unconcious by the electric fence, those still are my best memories. I'm sure Viola thought a few times well those damn kids finally killed her! What am I gunna tell joyce! 😊
ReplyDeleteI've heard quite a few stories about the "damn kids!" 😂
DeleteMy most vivid memory of my sister Viola concerns what happened to me. Viola always wore a loose fitting house dress and an apron. One day sometime in the early 1950's I peddled my bike over to the Hendrickson farm to play on the railroad tracks with Janice, Marvin and Ilene. (older children were allowed to play on the railroad tracks in those days, because the trains only went 20 MPH and you could hear the steam engines coming miles away) When I arrived mid-morning the kids were excited to tell me the news that Viola had gone to the hospital to have a baby. I wasn't particularly impressed because, after all she eventually wound up having 8 kids. After the daily train lumbered past in late afternoon and I recovered the penny we had placed on the track to get squished, and peddled home for supper. Half way though supper it occurred to me that Viola had gone to the hospital to have a baby, which I casually announced to the family. Ma became very angry and scolded me for making up stories, It was the only time I was ever told to leave the table. I still remember my sister Joyce snickering at me. (the baby of the family finally got punished)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Viola who was a fair sized woman and always wore loose fitting clothes had not told the family that she was pregnant. It was probably the next day when she brought the new born over to show to the folks that my "STORY" turned out to be true, but that fact was never acknowledged and I could never get my missed supper back.
I haven't heard this one before. I'm sorry you lost your supper. I guess Grandma was over the excitement of having babies by then. 😄
DeleteGreat story, Uncle Fred. I remember when mom went to the hospital to have Alan, none of us kids knew that she was pregnant. She had been wearing Bib overalls. We didn't know anything was happening until grandma Strand came over to make us supper. She told us where mom went
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Grandma would NOT be a fan of the Duggar family. Lol.
DeleteSorry I am late getting to this post. We had a lot of jokes about viola like she said she would put the potatos on the table and by the time she made the gravy the potatos were gone or she never frosted a cake cause the kids ate it before it cooled. But she had a hard life. No indoor plumbing til most of the kids were grown. She did the washing for her big family in an ancient wringer washer in the back room and I remember how dark and dingy it was. They had this old 2 seat car from the 30s with a rumble seat (for you younguns that was a seat where a trunk should be that you opened with a handle) Viola would drive it all over. I learned later she never had a license. Most of her married life she was under the watchful eye of her mother in law who lived in half the house. I remember her telling that when the kids were sick and throwing up she had to wear boots to go upstairs. She was 15 yrs older than I and so I never remember living at home with her. I wish we would have been closer.
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