Margie
Margie had a great big heart.
a first generation American born
Swede,
She grew up in a large family on a
rural farm.
Life was frugal and hard, but she was
a happy child.
Margie thought she’d end up a
farmer’s wife, but she managed to get herself an education, graduating from
High School in town.
Then a city boy named Paul stole her
heart and together they started a family , having twins.
But the girls died shortly after a
premature birth.
So they tried again and successfully
had a son.
Two years later their big plans came
to abrupt end when Paul’s heart gave out,
leaving Margie a widow with no support.
She and her young son moved in with
Lillian and Harry, a kindly couple
and Margie went to work.
Unskilled , Margie got what work she
could, operating a punch press in a factory making card table chairs.
Young, lonely, and in need of support
she gravitated to a new relationship, marrying again.
Husband Dick and she had another son,
but it turned out Dick loved his car far more than Margie .That marriage failed
and Margie again was back to operating a factory piece-work job, this time
making sewing machine parts .
Margie now had two children to
provide for herself as Dick was also a deadbeat.
She put her oldest son through
college working in that factory stretching the budget so
far in support of that son’s education
that she and younger son John lived on beans for a year.
John went astray doing drugs in
Vietnam. He received a Navy discharge.
He broke Margie’s heart, but she
still supported him working and doing without herself.
Finally, he “found Jesus” and moved
east.
Margie reached retirement . The
factory honored her 30 some years service with a cake and a pin.
Margie moved in with her older son .
She had long dreamed of being able to
go to Hawaii.
It was her fervent heart’s desire,
but knew she could not afford it.
So, Margie found joy in belonging to “Women
of the Moose,” social organization.
Her heart swelled with pride in being
elected the “Senior Regent,” head of that group.
Margie thought it her greatest honor.
Still, anytime she would hear of a
friend’s vacation to Hawaii, Margie’s heart would ache.
So her eldest son sent her there on a
long vacation.
It was all she talked about for the
next two years.
Then, Margie was struck with multiple
strokes.
Paralyzed on one side with no speech
Margie spent her days in a nursing home.
She tried to hang on , but her big
heart was so weak it couldn’t sustain even her thin body.
Margie died only a year after the
strokes,
but she left fulfilled in having made
her dream trip to Hawaii.
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In honor of My Mother,
Marguerite Wendt Rakow (Margie) 1912-1984
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