I Believe – My Values

Starting when I was young, probably about 6 or 7 to about 16, My mother would send me on the train or bus from Detroit to Calument, MI to spend the summer with my Grandmothers. Grandma Sophie and Grandpa Matt Ollila and Grandma and Grandpa Olander shared me each summer. I shared a birthday with Grandma Ollila and was the oldest grandchild.
The train station was so grey and old. The train was so big and black. The conductor was in charge of me and always made sure I traveled safely since I was alone. Even the conductor sent me cards at Christmas time we got so close. What a sweet man.
Sometimes I had to take the bus. It was long and I never got off. I made sure to get a window seat and the seats were so big as a small kid. If no one from my family was coming south, I had to take the bus back.
We went to Big Traverse a lot while up north where my Uncle Ralph had a fishing boat. The little fishing boat was named the Millie after my Aunt Millie. I only got to go on the long day trips because I hid on the boat when they took off. I usually had to stay behind because I couldn’t pee like a boy. Uncle Ralph tried to teach me how to swim by throwing me off the boat and i sank. He had to dive in and get me, which he was not very happy with.
I used to go berry picking with Grandma Olander and Aunt Ida. She was a tall blonde, and certainly where I got my looks from. My job was to skim the foam off the top of the blueberry jam.
When my grandma’s were busy, Grandpa took over taking care of us. For breakfast, he would make us coffee with crackers and cream from the top of the milk. We never complained because we were always told we had to eat whatever was put in front of us. The only thing I absolutely hated was pea soup. I’d hide if it was served. I would climb a tree until dinner was over and ate again at breakfast.
Not many people spoke English in Swedetown so Grandma Ollila was the mouthpiece for most of the town. She translated for many people and went to appointments with them. She basically acted as a teacher and helped the migrants from Finland and Sweden get their Green cards.
My Grandpa Ollila was the sheriff of the town. My cousins weren’t always up there the whole summer with me. I always came up the day school let out and came back the day before school started.
One of the lasting things that will stay with me forever is that both of my grandparents loved and respected each other so much!

I believe that if you make a good decision regarding who to marry, all the other decisions get easier.  I have always felt like myself around Jayme, and we’ve always had fun together.  It’s one reason that I’ve never, for one day, regretted marrying her.

I met Jayme the summer before my senior year of high school, when her brother Gregg called and asked me to play the drums in the back of his dad’s pickup for the El Dorado parade.  Her dad was driving, Jayme was waving from the passenger seat, and Gregg, Brad Doggett and I were in the back playing.  Gregg and I remained friends, the band stayed together, and for the next six years, when I was at Gregg’s house, she was the cute kid sister who would bring us popcorn.

After I graduated from KU, I accepted a job in Oklahoma City for accounting firm Peat Marwick.  The day before I left, I called Gregg’s house and Jayme answered.  She started to get Gregg, and I told her I had called to talk to her.  I was moving to Oklahoma City, I explained, and I wouldn’t know anyone there, and I asked if she would mind being pen pals.

When Jayme arrived back at school at K-State, there was already a letter from me waiting for her there. We wrote letters for a few months.  On our first date we went to see Superman! over the Christmas holiday when we were both back home.

When I got back to Oklahoma City, busy season hit in the accounting world.  Since I was new to the working world, I had no idea what to expect. The hours were intense. I was driving to work before seven a.m. and returning around nine p.m.,  seven days a week, and I was miserable.  I tried to get myself to call or write Jayme, but I couldn’t.  I was exhausted, I didn’t think I had anything to offer. I hoped she would understand, but I knew she likely would move on.

This went on for four months.  In late April, busy season finally ended. The first day I got to leave at five p.m., I stopped at the grocery store, got a steak, went home and went jogging, and after dinner I decided I was ready to call Jayme. It had been months since we had talked.  I was prepared to hear that she was either dating someone, engaged, or maybe just mad at me for ignoring her for four months.  I got up the nerve to call.  She was still interested.  I was relieved.   We got married a year later.

Jayme and I always managed to have fun no matter the circumstances. When we lived in Whitewater, money was tight, but we still made a point of taking weekend trips to Oklahoma City or wherever we could afford.  We had frequent get-togethers with friends, often at our house. On weekends, we would load the kids up, go to El Dorado lake, stop by Kentucky Fried Chicken, and get a bucket of chicken to take to the El Dorado Drive In.

When we lived in Minneapolis, we found a way to take several trips across the U.S. A friend told us about Mackinac Island, Michigan. It was quaint, had no cars, and a cool place to go.  We were sold, and booked a trip to the Grand Hotel. We loved it. In the years since, we’ve been to numerous destinations in several countries, but the Grand is our favorite. In the ten years we lived in Michigan, we made it up there about every year. Once, we were able to take Alex, Tori, Lindsey and Jake.  Of all the fun we’ve had, the Grand may be the funnest.

Our routine is pretty much the same every day. We get up, I go down to the world’s best breakfast about 30 minutes before Jayme. After breakfast, we rent bikes and ride the seven miles around the island. Next is bocce ball, then over to the golf course for a quick lunch before teeing off. After golf, we  change clothes and head to the Esther Williams swimming pool. I then take a quick shower, put on my suit (required on the lower level of the Grand in the evenings) and head straight to the Cupola Bar. The Cupola Bar is located on the top floor, and has a spectacular view of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and the Mackinac Bridge. I’ll have a Heineken, watch the ferry boats leave marks on the lakes, and think about life. Jayme walks in  looking like a million bucks a little later, we stay and chat with the Cupola crowd, then we head down to the greatest evening meal in the world. Five courses, rotating menu. After dinner, we head to the ballroom and dance to the band. The dance floor is usually pretty empty when we get there.  Not for long.  Sometimes, we attract a crowd; other times, it’s just us. Before heading to the room, we walk the world’s longest porch and enjoy the terrific Northern Michigan summer evening.  The next morning, it’s the same routine.  If we’re there for three or four days, it’s the same thing every day.  And we love it every day.

I think our marriage has worked so well because we really enjoy spending time together.  On Mackinac Island, at the Grand, there are no cars, we never turn on the television.  It’s just us.  We take the time to reflect on how cool our lives together are and how much we love our family.  It’s a special time.

After I returned home from wheat harvest, I went to work for Browne’s Market and Butcher Shop in El Dorado.  My job included stocking grocery shelves, and sacking and carrying groceries for customers.  Also, on Tuesdays, I worked in the slaughter house. There were four of us slaughtering about twenty hogs and my job was to pick everything up that was on the floor and put them in their designated places. I picked up the hearts, livers, and kidneys then hung them up on hooks and washed them off. That left just the guts on the floor, which I gathered and put into five gallon buckets then carried outside and dumped them into fifty five gallon barrels. Every Tuesday when we butchered hogs there were two couples that would be going thru the gut barrels and cutting out the stomach and what ever else that they could use. The slaughterhouse butchered cattle on Wednesday but I wasn’t involved with that. The store also had a baker and two sweet ladies did the baking. One’s name was Bea Hammaker, but I’m sorry I can not remember the other lady’s name. They made sure I got a warm doughnut when they baked a new batch.

While I worked for Browne’s I had a room at the Butler Hotel, just a half block from where I worked and across the street from the Butler County Courthouse. Pat was living with Marilyn, which was about a mile or so from the hotel. I would walk to her house and back most evenings. Later on, I bought a 1929 Model A Ford which we rode around town in. Pat and I started going steady about December 1954.

I worked for Mr. Joe Browne until the end of February 1954, then my coworker Jerry Hayes and I both joined the Air Force.

Around the last of September or first of October 1954, my friend Eldon said you need to come and meet my girlfriend’s friend in El Dorado, her name is Pat. We went to the El Dorado theater where the girls were after a football game. We started up the stairs to the balcony just as Eldon’s girlfriend Marilyn was coming downstairs and Pat was with her. Pat was in her Pep club uniform, a white blouse with a red vest, black skirt, red sock and a black sock, a pair of black and white saddle oxfords and a very beautiful face. She didn’t know I was going to be there, as she had told Marilyn not to set her up with any more dates, she was capable of getting her own.  I’m glad I didn’t know that, or I may have not gone. I said, “Hello, I’m Jim Woodall, it’s good to meet you”.  After talking for a few minutes, I asked her if she wanted to go on a date. She said yes, and as I write this we have been together over sixty three years.

What a lucky guy I am, also what a lucky bunch of kids and grand kids for Pat saying yes to this bashful country boy.

Dear Mom,
You have been patient you have been kind but best of all you are mine! I was blessed the day God looked at me with his hand rubbing his chin and said, “I believe you need a special women who can keep up with you, teach you to be kind and to do the right thing.” “You need a mother who can appreciate your spirit but still lovingly teach you how to control it and use it for good”, said God. So God look down at all the earth and found the perfect mother for me, you.

The first year I was in your care I was allergic to the milk that would keep me thriving, your care and patience kept me going until I was able to eat solid foods. Around the age of 6 I was so sick with just about everything and had to miss many weeks of school, you nursed me back to health. The patience you must have needed to keep me in bed and, still so that I could heal had to be hard to keep up. Thank you.

As I began to want my independence you had to really keep an eye on my activities. Was I hanging with the right people, making good decisions? Helping me with my homework was no easy or fun task…. Bless you for those times.

Growing into adulthood you helped me grow into adulthood with your words of wisdom of life as an adult woman.

I am a mother now, oh how you loved my children. You let them cut whenever they wanted, hugging them and telling them over and over how wonderful they are and how much you love them. That is the best gift that a daughter could ever ask of her mother, to love her children as you do.

Now a great grandmother to my five grandchildren you have stepped into the realm of the most kind, gentle, and unconditional love a person can show, just like our wonderful God who put us together in the first place. It was his decision to put us together on this journey called life and I thank him every day for that. My life would have looked so much different if I hadn’t had you. I shiver to think what I would have been like without a loving mom as you. Thank you for molding me into a person that I know is loved and who loves my own self.
I love you very much!
Jayme

Hey Grandma!

There is so much that I can say here. I’m having troubles choosing what to say first. Well, actually that is the easy part, I love you.

You and grandpa have started traditions that will be carried on for generations to come. You have passed down multiple different recipes like your apple pie, spaghetti and stuffing. You have shown us what it means to truly love and take care of people. You have given us a home to vacation to. These are just a few of the things that you have started that I am very proud to pass down to Jonah and Arthur.

The best of the things you are passing down is your compassion. Whenever you saw someone in need, trouble or down you were always there to help. I remember when we were vacationing in Savannah, taking a tour of the city. We had just finished lunch at Panera and we tossed some of our drinks in the trash. A homeless man came up to the trash can, dug out one of the pops, took a drink and said “you feel that?!? It’s still cold!!” with a large smile on his face. You saw all of that happen and immediately felt for him. You reached into your purse and gave him a couple of dollars so that he could “buy some warm food to go along with his cold drink.” I know you may not remember that, mostly because you help people in his similar situation all the time, but that will forever have an impact on me.

You continually living out your compassion has truly affected me and given me a road map on how to also help others. Thank you so much for that, Grandma.

Our 2017 Christmas was one to remember. But the best thing that could have happen did. You sat me down in Nana and Bobo’s office and had a conversation with me. That conversation plays in my head daily. You truly listened to me, heard me and helped me. I still don’t know the true reason why I was struggling, but with your help I was able to get it together and become a better man. Out of that conversation came a pact between us, to pray for each other every day. I try my best to do that, but sometimes I forget. I know that there is no way you miss a day. Grandma, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me, level with me and be honest with me. Relationships (looking form the outside in) can look too easy sometimes. You and grandpa do a great job of that. But you being honest with me and providing a small window really gave me some great perspective. Thank you so much for that, Grandma.

All in all, you have set our families up for success. You provide love, wisdom and compassion to every single one of us. You relate to us, understand us and love us unconditionally. Thank you so much for that, Grandma.

Words cannot express how much you mean to me and my family. I hope you know that.

Love you-
Alex

Grandma –

It’s hard to point to any one single memory that left the most lasting impact on my life. There are so many! I think what strikes me the most about my Grandma is that it was and is always her. I have always known that she loved me. I have always known that she cared for me. I have always know that she would protect me and guard me no matter what. She has always been my biggest cheerleader. My greatest supporter in the lows and highs of life but most importantly, in everyday life. Grandma has always been a combination of the most sweetest and most fire-iest person in the room. One minute she is in awe of me or my family and then without skipping a beat she is dropping a hilarious, sometimes out of nowhere, joke that cracks everyone up. Grandma has always made it a point to encourage me wherever I am at in my life and she has brought that encouragement without pause to Jake, James, Landon and Thalia.

Grandma, you have given me a home. I don’t know if you even realize that, but when I “go home” that’s going to your house. The time I have spent at your house is far more memorable than the time we have spent swimming and boating. It’s the time we have spent chatting on the porch, cooking in the kitchen and just relaxing in the living room. It’s also a safe place…our safe place. We can go there and just “be” and know full and well that that is more than enough.

Grandma, I love you so much and hope you know how much I admire you. I pray that my marriage will stand the test of time with such beauty as yours has. I pray that I can do for my grandchildren and great grandchildren even half of what you have done for me. I love you, Grandma!

Tori

Grandma Woodall (said in the voices of James, Landon & Thalia)!!

Thank you for welcoming me into the family from the first time we met! Nobody knew where Tori and I’s relationship would go, but it didn’t matter to her. I was important to Tori, therefore I was important to her! She has continued this care and love for me throughout my being apart of her family. It doesn’t matter what is going on, Grandma is a constant pillar of support, love and great food :)!!

At the lake, there are so many memories with Grandma, but 3 stand out for me. For as long as i can remember, there are 2 constants at the lake, Cherry Pie and Potato Salad without onions! Two of my favorites! She would always have these for me, knowing how much I enjoyed eating them! Its not just that she would have them, its that she knew how picky of an eater I was and went the extra mile to make sure she had specific food for me, the grandson-in-law. Another wonderful memory is when Bobo brings out the guitar, watching the joy it brought to Grandma was priceless. At any moment she may stand and dance or at least rock in her chair with her fins to the left, fins to the right! Tori and Grandma against Grandpa and I in hand and foot would show all sides of Grandma…you would see the sweetness when she apologized for leaving you with a red 3, but at the same time you know she is a competitor and just stuck it to you! The next moment, she does it again, Grandpa makes a quip about it and the giggles come on hard and heavy! All in the matter of a few minutes we would get to see what makes Grandma beautiful…her passion, her compassion, her sense of humor and her love for family!

Grandma, the passion you show for Tori and I has shown through for our kids as well. As a parent, there is nothing better than to watch your little ones crawl into Grandma’s lap and snuggle in! I appreciate everything you have done for me and my family! I love you Grandma!

Jake

Mom –

You live your life with love and grace.

Your smile lights up a room. You have a tremendous love for people. Your laugh and sense of humor are infectious. You play a killer game of hand and foot.

You provide a tremendous example to your extended family of how to live with joy and compassion.
You made a terrific pick for a husband many years ago, and since then you have been a tremendous Gracie to his George. Or is it the other way around – you’re the straight man and Grandpa is the never-know-what-he’s-going-to-say-next guy. The two of you make, and have always made, a terrific team.

You’ve welcomed me and all my friends with open arms all my life. When I was a teenager, I would frequently be late practicing with the guys downstairs, because you and I were chatting upstairs. I enjoyed those talks a lot. And thanks for sending the cute blond downstairs with popcorn.

Tori and Alex adore you. You have been so kind, so loving, and so consistent with them their entire lives. If you look up Perfect Grandma in the dictionary, your picture will be there. You care deeply for them, enjoy spending time with them, and give the best hugs. They know you are always there for them and you support them in everything they do. You have accepted Jee Hoon, Susan and Makayla into our family and helped them experience the love you have always given to your natural family.

You have accepted my siblings as part of the family. When Bob and Kathie come to the lake, they feel just as at home as our family does. They love you too.

It’s always been fun watching you interact with your friends. You have established long relationships with terrific people. We enjoy spending time with you and Grandpa and your friends.

Jayme and I really enjoy spending time with you and Grandpa. You always enjoy hearing the updates of what’s going on in our and the kids’ lives. We enjoy playing cards, listening to the music from your earlier years, and just chatting about all the latest happenings.

I know you are always there for me. Whether it’s celebrating the great moments, or battling through the tough ones, you are such a comfort to me. I know you will love me no matter what. That is a terrific gift you give me. And I love you a ton as well.

You are a terrific person, mom. Thank you for all you do for me and my family. I look forward to many more of those terrific hugs to come!

I love you!
John