Mother Ruth Metzler Longenecker 1918 – 2014
July is Mother’s birthday month. If she were still living, she would be 103 years old on the 23rd. Like most Mennonite women in the 1950s, Mother Ruth expended energy in keeping house, making meals, and preserving a garden harvest. She especially enjoyed motherhood and read to me from a Bible story book. From this I learned about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, David keeping sheep, Elijah being whisked to heaven in a chariot, and Jesus born in a manger. This is what the story book’s cover looked like:
Velma Willis’ mother also shared stories with her, at first telling her legends from their Athbascan Indian heritage in an Alaskan village close to the Arctic Circle. Ms. Willis has preserved one of these stories in the book titled Two Old Women.
Velma Willis, about her mother’s bedtime stories:
“Each day after cutting wood we would sit and talk in our small tent on the bank at the mouth of the Porcupine River, near where it flows into the Yukon. We would always end with Mom telling me a story. (There I was, long past my youth, and my mother still told me bedtime stories!) One night it was a story I heard for the first time—a story about two old women and their journey through hardship.
What brought the story to mind was a conversation we had earlier while working side by side collecting wood for the winter. Now we sat on our bedrolls and marveled at how Mom in her early fifties was still able to do this kind of hard work while most people of her generation long since had resigned themselves to old age and all of its limitations. I told her I wanted to be like her when I became an elder.” Intro. xi
Then Velma transcribed this oral legend into print.
Originally printed in 1993, a 20th Anniversary Edition was subsequently published 2013
Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.
Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community, and forgiveness “speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness, and wisdom” (Ursula K. Le Guin).
Illustration by Jim Grant
Author Velma Wallis recounts an Alaskan legend in a story of betrayal, courage and survival. The peoples of the Athabascan culture were nomads, always on the move in search of food. At one particularly trying time, the tribe experienced a famine and decided two older women are expendable. These women, Chickadee, age 80, and Star, age 75, are slated to leave their people. In a dramatic illustration of “floating to death on an ice floe,” the women have either to adapt or die. They resolve to defy the odds, stating “We are going to prove them wrong.”
In eight chapters, the legend expands into lessons in survival, the women reviving old skills: fashioning snowshoes from birchwood, recalling the best places to fish, and warming themselves in caribou skins, all the while carrying live coals from post to post.
In a conclusion that echoes the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, the legend teaches mutual respect for all ages in a community, especially elderly wisdom. In preserving this story, author Willis reminds us that “stories are gifts given by an elder to a younger person.” (xii) Wallis tells a tale for all generations with simplicity and grace, a myth that will hold the reader in its thrall.
My Mother’s Gifts
- Appreciated the home arts: Preparing food from garden to table
- Illustrated the value of hard work: tomato field, garden, preserving food by canning and freezing, keeping a tidy house
- Taught me to sew on her Singer sewing machine.
- Demonstrated how to care for an infant
- Hosted twelve or more friends or family with a formal table set with china and crystal every few months
- Sang songs of joy in the kitchen, her happy place
Demonstrated simple faith, complete trust in God: “Whatever the Lord wants is best.”
Were bedtime stories part of your childhood?
What special stories has your mother passed on to you?
What stories or legends have been told and retold in your family? What legend or story will you transmit to the next generation?
*****
I will be celebrating several family birthdays this month and also taking a short break from social media including blogging. See you back soon, Stay safe!
Good morning, Marian! You’ve given us a lot to think about. I’m going to have to look for Velma Wallis’s book. The blurb on the cover by Tony Hillerman makes me think of my dad, who loved his books. Somewhere I have a letter that Hillerman wrote in reply to my dad’s.
I don’t remember my mother reading bedtime stories to me. I suppose she did–and my older sister read to me. Both my parents passed down a love of reading.
Enjoy your family time and break, Marian!
You come from a very literary family–and lovers of antiques too, including an “antique” letter from the famed Tony Hillerman. Thanks for engaging here first thing in the morning and sending good wishes too! 🙂
You’re very welcome, Marian! 😀
😀
My mother resembled yours in many ways, Marian. She read to my brother and me every night. I gave copies to three old books — Lassie Come Home, Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue, and a Horatio Alger book– to one of my bookclub members before I moved back to PA this year. The Bunny Brown books were especially well constructed for bedtime stories. They always left you on the edge of the cliff: “Just one more, Mother. Please!!”
That Athabascan story sounds like it would make a great movie!
You “sparked joy” in others passing on books. I’m sure you remember from my blog similar bittersweet moments when I passed on some of my favorite books five years ago. The titles you listed here are classics and you gave them to book lovers who will appreciate them. That’s the important thing!
I agree with your comment about Velma’s book as a movie, Shirley. 🙂
Two Old Women sounds like an excellent read. I’ve heard that Eskimos abandoned the elderly to die, but nothing more than that about whether in fact it happened. I love the notion of two elderly women fighting to survive against all odds.
Bedtime stories were an integral part of my childhood. My dad was the one who read them to my brother and me. My mother encouraged our creativity with art projects and music.
The most memorable family legend, of course, came from my dad. It’s scatalogical, so I won’t repeat it here.
You have a rich heritage in the arts: How fortunate you are having cultural influences from both sides of the family. Your dad sounds like quite a “card,” with probably more than one racy story in his repertoire. Your comments are always intriguing, Liz. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Marian! My dad did love his colorful characters.
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What a lovely post! So wonderful to have a caring mother.
Velma’s book sounds very compelling.
My parents read Grimm’s fairy tales to me at bedtime. So I developed a love for them at an early age. They also read Dr Seuss books to my brothers and me.
Not everyone has parents who read stories to them at bedtime. You are so fortunate. I hope they didn’t read Hansel and Gretel before turning out the light: You may have had nightmares. Thanks, L. Marie, for checking in again today. 🙂
My mother left me her stories, hand-written, in two binders that I found after she died. She never told me she was doing this, so it was a surprise. As for my childhood, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books were bedtime stories. Or Tasha Tudor books, too. Old-time wisdom pumped into my little brain as I drifted off to sleep.
Your eyes must have bugged out at discovering the precious binders after your mom died. What a heritage and how you are adapting it to your own witty style. Yay, for stories and for mothers who preseve them to pass on. Thanks, Ally! 🙂
Funny enough, it was my dad who would tell us bedtime stories, but my mum would teach us songs, how to cook and look after our younger siblings and, later on, my nephews and nieces.
Have a good break, Marian. And happy birthday to all those celebrating theirs in your family.
Well, Fatima, your parents covered all the bases: story, song, cooking, and parenting. Thanks too for the good wishes. My grand-daughter, son, and I have July birthdays. So do several of my close friends. Thanks for swinging by! 🙂
Blogging breaks are needed from time to time, Marian. I hope yours is relaxing and lovely. This summer I’m posting every other Friday instead of once a week, which I find much less stressful!
I really enjoyed reading about Mother Ruth (and her photos) and what a strong mother figure she was, and still is. Sadly, I can’t ever recall either of my parents reading to me. But that’s so hard to believe! I know we had picture books, because even before I could read, I read these stories out loud guessing from the photos. My mom gave me the gift of taking me to the town library when I was about 8. I sank into love with a building that housed so many books. And she allowed me to ride my bike to the library once a week (about 1.5 miles from our house). When I became a mom, I read a story to my children every night until they resisted around age 12. 🙂 Then they read on their own.
I can’t think of a better link to books than a “license” to the library. How interesting that in those days it was safe to let children pedal to the house of books on their bikes. You advice about blogging breaks is well taken. Blogging is a great link to my online friends, but it does take time and energy. With a scaled-down schedule this summer, we should both come back later on–refreshed! Huge thanks, Pam! 🙂
Hi,
Bedtime stories were not told to me. My father and mother were too tired after a very long and hard days work. But we always looked forward to Saturday and Sunday evenings where my father would tell us kidS a story. I remember those stories with lots of joy because he would first make homemade vanilla ice cream on the porch and when it was finished we all got a bowl of ice cream and sat on the porch and he would start talking. The story had begun.
Shalom aleichem
Pat, I can’t think of a greater legacy than homemake ice cream and homemade stories. With a father like yours, no wonder you have the gift of storytelling. By the way, I wonder if your ice cream churn was like ours, a steel tube surrounded with ice and wooden “paddles” inside. Huge thanks! 🙂
P. S. We made homemade ice cream too, usually vanilla and then poured Hershey’s chocolate syrup on top. I’m getting hungry here writing this.
Hi Marian,,
We had the old timey ice cream maker with a steel tub encase in a wood tub that had ice between it and the metal tub and we would all take turns churning. We even churned butter for years even after it was very unpopular. I can remember complaining about not buying our butter from the supermarket like everyone else. Today, when I look back at the those day, I see how precious they were and are to me now.
Shalom aleichem
Thanks for the followup here. Yes, you described the ice cream making the Longeneckers had.
Yes, we are embarrassed about things that long ago were not in vogue. My husband remembers being ashamed of having homemade bread for school lunches instead of the Wonder Bread other kids had. Now he knows how blessed he was. 🙂
Enjoyed this post so much, especially in light of the tragedy we are facing here in Canada of finding the unmarked graves of so many Indigenous children who were forced into residential schools and then basically neglected until they succumbed to disease or malnutrition. They could no longer hear the stories their elders passed on to them, but were told they were “heathen”. This is a wonderful story you are reviewing and passing on.
My mother didn’t read to us, but she sang to us, mostly German folk songs that contained stories. Our “Oma” (grandma) was a story teller and also provided me with German books every Christmas and birthday. I’m the story teller in our clan and the grandchildren always clamour for more!
I too am horrified at the stories of the unmarked graves of children who apparently starved to death. There are no reparations for such deeds except for making sure the tragedy is not repeated.
Without a doubt, you are the storyteller in your family and graciously passing that gift on to your family as your blog posts attest. I can see why the grandchildren always clamour for more! Thanks too for mentioning the German songs your grandmother sang to you. Grandma L. sang a lullaby and also “Silent Night” in German, or maybe it was PA Dutch. Anyway, the words and melodies were very soothing. Thanks for stopping by to comment. Now it’s my turn to read your blog story of today. 🙂
Marian —I’m going to as the Boise Requisition Librarian to get Velma Wallis’s book, TWO OLD WOMEN. It sounds like an excellent read!
My mom read to me every night until I was about seven, and then I started reading to myself. As a mother, I read to Evan until he was about seven, and then he started reading to himself. Reading is one of the best gifts we can give and receive.
I echo your thoughts about reading, a gift that keeps on giving through the generations. Wallis’s book is a quick read but very entertaining and enlightening. Only 140 pages including illustrations. I’m happy to share a book you would want to read, Laurie! 🙂
Reading aloud is a ‘ritual’ in my family too, both childhood family and married one. Currently I read every day to my 2 yr old grandson, and I love how much he enjoys books and learns from them.
A wonderful connection is that my husband’s birthday is also July 23, a different year, of course, and, though, male, he has a lot of your mother’s qualities. E.G. He is the one who makes breakfast most days in our house.
Thank you for including the Alaskan legend in this wonderful post.
Reading aloud bonds the generations and also imprints language “flow” for the child. Plaudits for doing this with your grandson. Also, your husband gets a 5-star rating from me — for making breakfast, etc. He sounds like the ideal mate.
I notice you are posting this during a time of transition. Moving is very disruptive and I applaud you for posting during this time of upheaval. As I recall from our move 5 years ago, doing “normal” things helped ease me through the chaos. Maybe it’s doing the same for you. Thanks so much, Dolores! 🙂
I read Two Old Women many years ago and just loved it. I think I gave my copy of the book to my daughter. My mom was similar in that she taught me all the things your mom taught you. Valuable lessons indeed. I think we had the same or a very simialr 365 Bedtime Bible Stories book. Mom or Dad would read to us before bed, no matter how busy they were. Precious memories. Have a lovely blogging break my friend.
I had not heard of this legend before. Right now, I can’t recall how it came on my radar, but the story of persistence through hardship resonates with me–and others–for sure.
It’s not surprising that you come from a family of readers. You family is very proud of you for pushing family traditions into multi-book publishing. Hats off to you, Darlene! 🙂
My first storyteller was my grandmother, Fanny. We shared the same bedroom from the time I was born until she passed away when I was six years old. First, she would take the combs out of her hair and let down the bun she wore all day as she cooked delicious meals in our little kitchen. Then she would sit on the side of my bed. She told me stories in Yiddish and in English. Stories of her childhood, of her brother and her sister and of the escape from the Tzar’s army to get to America.
My grandmother was the one who instilled in me the love of story, and later of reading and writing.
My novel, The Keys to Fanny, was inspired by those early bedtime stories.
Oh, Sally, I remember the joy of reading and reviewing The Keys to Fanny. Now you tell me Fanny’s storytelling was the inspiration for the details of your book. Wonderful! We both have a family history of persecution, which led to our ancestor’s immigration to the land of the free.
You are fortunate that your grandmother told you these stories. I have heard in some families, the older generation suppresses the stories because they are too painful. But you and I know that nothing, either good or bad, is ever wasted for writers. Thanks for adding your wisdom here. Thank you! 🙂
Bedtime stories were always a favorite in our house! Nursery rhymes and fairy tales led the list… Thanks for sharing your story and Velma’s too, Marian!
What would we do without stories, Bette? Reading and writing help us to both express ourselves and to escape, especially to another reality. Thanks! 🙂
Bette, when my daughter Crista was young I would make up stories for her before prayers and a bedtime kiss. One was Swayback, a tired old horse who changed his thinking after being encouraged by kindness and went on to be a champion in a big race.
I drew some sketches of this story but life was too busy at the time to finish making it into a children’s book.
Oh, my goodness, I do remember “Swayback,” the tired old horse, and how Crista loved the continuing story. Thanks for checking in with this story resurrected from years ago. 🙂
There is beauty in passing down stories from one generation to the next. Part of my nightly routine with my son was to read to him each night through sixth grade. It was memorable father/son time together. When he was younger, he often like me to make up stories, which I was happy to do. The only problem is sometimes I couldn’t remember the previous version, and he would call me on it. “That’s not how the story goes, Dad.”😂
Kudos to you for continuing the “oral tradition” with your son. Now I wonder how he is using his imagination as an adult, either in his career or perhaps as a hobby.
Thanks for swinging by to read & comment, Pete! 🙂
Hi Marian, what a lovely post. It’s nice to see pictures of your mother. I enjoyed your review of this book about two Alaskan women, it sounds splendid. I don’t recall my mother ever reading to me, but Granny Joan did. She read Little House in the Big Woods to me. I still love that book.
Robbie, you prove that every creative person has had a mentor at some time in life to get the juices flowing. Yours, apparently was Granny Joan. God bless Granny Joan! I wonder if you still have a copy of Little House in the Big Woods. Thank you once again for commenting here. 🙂
The legend above caught my attention. Reminds me of the trio of books from Alaska I read after our (to us) legendary trip to our 49th state in 2019. Those books I reviewed on my blog https://findingharmonyblog.com/2020/05/02/go-on-an-alaskan-adventure-with-these-books/
This sounds like another book I would like to read although I like true stories better than legends.
And the book we enjoyed stories from as children was called The Children’s Hour, I think. I can see it in my mind but that’s about all I remember now. My mother didn’t read to us every night but we loved it when she did. With our own children, we read every night, mostly me. My husband has probably read more books to our grandchildren than he actually did to our children.
Yes, I indeed read this blog post and commented on it. And certainly you were fortunate to have taken the Alaskan cruise when you did. As we are aware, all cruise lines were shut down during the pandemic last year.
The story showcased here is a legend, but somehow I think it is based in truth from the long history of those who live with hardship almost every day. I can imagine you reading to your three girls as I did with our two. “The Storybook Chair” was a ritual that connected lunch to nap time with our children were little. I believe I enjoyed it was much as the they did.
And I’m glad Stuart can enjoy reading to the grandchildren now. No doubt, he was busy with his job when your girls were little.
Thanks for this and for your concern about our wellbeing through the storm yesterday. Yes, a tornado did blow through and did damage about 6-8 miles from our home.
Always glad to see you here, Melodie! 🙂
What a lovely post Marian thank you. Velma Wallis’ book sounds extraordinary, I’ll look it out. I’m also intrigued by the two other books on the cover of ‘Two Old Women’ –
I don’t remember being read to as a child but I know that I developed a love of reading from a very early age, so maybe my parents did read to me. When our sons were small, we read to them. My husband often made up stories at bedtime which I think they enjoyed even more! It was a neat trick to get them into bed.
Your photographs of your mother are so lovely. I can see the life and energy in her …
Have a wonderful break and happy birthday to all 🙂
Thank you, Susan, for noticing absolutely everything in this post, even the books mentioned on the Two Old Women cover. You come from a literary family, and I have no doubt you picked up a love for words early on. I notice that your husband made up stories for your boys as Cliff did for our two. Our daughter was intrigued by horses, so her dad made up stories about a run-down horse named Swayback. She loved the stories and identified somehow with the horse even though she was very young. As you say, it was a trick to get the kids into bed. Ha!
Thanks for sharing all this, my friend! 🙂
I’m on a cottage break myself, so catching up on reading posts. This was lovely. I don’t recall the specific stories we read, but I can picture the chair it happened in clearly. A huge wooden table rocker with wide, flat arms. My brothers would each sit on the arms and I would be in my mother’s lap. A wonderful memory.
Ah, the setting stands out! A perfect way to remember how your love affair with books began. Enjoy your rest of your break. You certainly deserve it. 🙂
I’m heading away from my desk soon. Thanks for reading and commenting anyway, Arlene!
My grandmother and aunt used to tell me lots of amazing stories!
And you, Lady Fiona, are continuing the storytelling with vignettes and amazing photos on your blog. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Marian – some wonderful memories of your mother. Thanks too for sharing your review of Two Old Women. Stories are so important, aren’t they?
From one book lover to another: Indeed, stories are SO important and if they are not written down they disappear in a generation or two, I’m glad Velma Wallis made the effort to publish this story, and I’m glad you too “push” books on your blog. Thanks, Barbara! 😉
This is wonderful, Marion. I look forward to giving ‘Two Old Women’ to a friend with a grandchild. My mother wasn’t much of a story teller. My aunt read classics to me like ‘Heidi’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables.’ I learned bible stories in Sunday School. The most powerful story of my childhood was something repeated many times by my paternal grandfather. He took Eliza to school on his horse and she didn’t want to go, but my great grandmother insisted. Little Eliza died in a tornado that day along with 2 other 6 year old girls in her country school. These 3 little girls the same age sat at the same desk and were the only ones to die. It seems my great grandmother sank into a deep depression and never recovered. I have my grandpa’s story, the letter my great grandfather wrote to my great-great grandfather in Kentucky about what had happened, the local Mexico Missouri newspaper article, and best of all, I was given a photo of Eliza taken around 1896, soon before her death. What beautiful soulful serious eyes she has. The photo overlooks my bed, so I see it when I wake up. “Good morning, Eliza.” Her story still makes me weep and it always made my grandpa cry.
Thank you for sharing the story of Eliza told by your grandfather. No doubt you could hear the cadence of his voice and felt his emotion as you retold your touching story here. I also appreciate when stories & books resonate with readers to the point that they want to purchase this book as a gift. Velma’s story is indeed timeless–and “age”less, a lesson for our times. Huge thanks, Elaine! 🙂
I don’t remember my mother reading to me…I do remember always receiving books for my birthday and Christmas though…I wish I did and always read to my children so I suppose that story teliing must have come from somewhere….
You are an excellent storyteller as your blog declares. Your avid followers, including me, enjoy your descriptive menus and recipes, appetizing photos, sometimes enhanced with a video. Thanks for checking in, Carol! 🙂
Lovely memories, Marian!