On June 24, 2012, my mom delivered her remembrance of my Grandma Mabel.

It will now, forever, be our remembrance, too.

 
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to celebrate the life and memory of a remarkable woman we knew as mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-gandmother, and aunt, Mabel Marietta Schaal Sturgeon Hudson. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jane Sturgeon, and Mabel was my mother-in-law, and a wonderful mother-in-law, I might add.

 

I first met Mabel over 25 years ago when I married her older son, Bob, and over those 25+ years I discovered what an interesting, energetic woman she was. It is impossible to sum up the life of a person who lived 100 years in a few short minutes, but as I thought about the changes that have occurred in our world over the past 100 years, I began to understand how Mabel might have become the adventurous, curious, bold, feisty, risk-taker she was.

 

World Wars I and II, plus too many others, the depression, the development of jet airplanes that transport us around the world in hours, space travel, the cold war and the end of the cold war with the USSR, the tearing down of the Berlin wall, the development of many life-saving drugs, plus many others—perhaps some of these experiences, which she witnessed, helped form her into the complex woman she was. Mabel was a nature-lover, student and teacher, history-lover, business woman, volunteer, traveler—Mabel was remarkable to say the least.

 

Our family has shared so many memories about Mabel over the past few months and days that reminded us of these traits. Jan remembered her mother, the lover of nature, who gathered her young children at the window to watch the power and beauty of a thunder storm with amazement. And just yesterday, 60-year old forgotten memories rushed forth as Bob entered this very church to the sound of someone practicing the organ, only to remember how he, as an 8-year-old boy, accompanied his mother to the church while she practiced the organ, and how curious he was about how it worked. Mabel would patiently stop her practicing and show him how all the pedals and stops worked.

 

And we remembered how much Mabel loved history and poetry. I remember the book of Robert Frost poems that always sat on table by the sofa, and Jan even discovered a collection of poems Mabel had painstakingly gathered to share with her students. Yes Mabel was a teacher for many years, teaching at different times in Sheldahl, Perry, Woodward, and Granger. And she was always trying to teach her family about something. She loved helping Jan and her friends with their 4-H projects, and more recently, if you can call 30+ years recent, Mabel developed an intense curiosity in genealogy, and traveled or corresponded across the United States and beyond, researching the family’s history. And at every opportunity she loved to share those stories and photos, which now fill a 4-drawer filing cabinet. She was very proud of her mother and father, Marietta and David, who traveled to Alaska before they had children to pan for gold, and of the mammoth tusk David brought home, which is now on display at the State Historical Building, and she even made a point to travel to Alaska, and do a little gold panning herself at one point.

 

It’s impossible to describe Mabel without mentioning her love of travel. Over the years, Mabel traveled to Russia at a time when tourists were closely monitored by the police. Other journeys took her to Spain, Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, plus virtually every state in the Union, including Alaska and Hawaii. One of her favorite places to visit was Sun Valley, Idaho, and many of us in her family took her there for her 99th birthday. Even though she was confined to a wheelchair by this time, she was eager to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain to see the views and lunch at a hilltop restaurant. It was amazing how travel energized Mabel. When the rest of us suggested we take a few moments to rest, Mabel protested, “ I didn’t come to Sun Valley to take a nap.” Oh, yes, that was the feisty Mabel we all new and loved.

 

I suspect some of this feisty drive was at play many years ago when, together, she and her first husband, Marvin, decided to expand their farm by purchasing her siblings’ interests in a farm the siblings had inherited from their parents. Mabel told me often how much she loved the farm even though she had grown up as a “town girl” in Sheldahl. Well into her 90’s, Mabel continued to maintain her own farm records and bank account, and she enjoyed traveling to the country to see how the crops were doing, always questioning what improvements needed to be made.

 

Marvin was, of course, her first love, but, unfortunately, cancer took him from Mabel and rest of the family much to prematurely. So the family was very happy when the joy of a new love finally entered Mabel’s life. Harry Hudson, a sweet, funny, gentle man, would whisk Mabel away to a lovely cottage overlooking beautiful Lake Chelan in Manson, Washington, where they shared many wonderful years together.

 

“You just put one foot in front of the other, and keep on going.” Those were Mabel’s words, when asked at her 100th birthday party how she managed to live such a long life. Yes, Mabel, we will remember to persevere when all seems lost and obstacles seem insurmountable while never losing our love of life and sense of joy. Thank you for your final lesson, Mother Mabel.

 

photos from Grandma Mabel’s memorial celebration weekend