Three Score and Ten, What Then?

by Peggy Mary E. Smith

  Well, with the help of Newt, the co-operation of Mother Nature, and some very kind and hardworking neighbours, we faired out pretty good that summer. We had enough hay and grain put up to sustain the livestock for the winter. Our garden did really good, and we had lots of food put down to keep us for the winter, as well.

  The chickens were paying their way. We sold eggs at the store to buy flour and sugar. There were excess vegetables that we sold, too. Newton butchered a beef cow and the hogs we’d fattened all summer. We kept what we needed and sold the rest to pay his wages and put a little cash aside. We had all worked so very hard, and thanks to Newton, we would make it for another year.

  Ned came back north in late September as he had promised. He wasn’t prepared to see how well we were making out. I think he was almost disappointed. He only stayed for a few days and went back home. Mother Coalter was glad to see him go, but I don’t think she was as relieved as I was. He was such an unkind man and had no consideration for his mother’s feelings. It upset me to listen to the arrogant tone he used when he spoke to his poor mother. It was just hard for me to think that he was even related to Royce. They were so different.

  Murray and Mary Beth started grade three that fall. They were nine at Thanksgiving. Royce’s death had put a lot of responsibility on them to shoulder, but they seemed to be taking it fine. Charity turned three in December. Chase was two come January. Life was moving forward. The children were all growing. We had a good roof overhead and food to eat. We certainly weren’t the happy household that we had been the previous year, but we were getting by. In those times that was all that could be expected.

  I missed Royce and the wonderful life we had shared. My love for him was forever present. Not a day went by without me thinking of him or longing for his companionship. I knew I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on his death as that would have made me go plum crazy. He was gone. There was nothing that could be done to bring him back. I had to remind myself how fortunate I had been to have shared the love we had had for each other and for the time we had had together. Some days that was easier than others.

  Considering how labour-intensive our daily life had become, I was pleased how well we made out that winter, me and Mother Coalter and the children. We had Newt and the Harmons to thank. They’d just drop by every once in a while to help us out. Newt and I had been close growing up, and I think he felt somewhat responsible for me since he had returned from war and Jed hadn’t. I know he bore a lot of guilt over that. And now Royce was gone too. I know that weighed heavy on his mind.

  March came in like a lion in the spring of 1925. It turned real mild and rained for two days. Then we got a flash freeze-up. Everything was icy and slick outside. We put down wood ashes to help, but the path to the barn became treacherous, and poor Mother Coalter slipped on the ice. She had been on her way to the stable to help with the evening chores. She went down hard. Murray was in the barn cleaning out the gutters when he heard her yelling. He dropped his shovel and went to see what was going on. He found Grandma Coalter on the ground, crying in agony. She couldn’t get up. He knew right off something bad was wrong. He came to the house to fetch me. Between the two of us, we managed to carry Mother Coalter into the house and get her up to her room. I knew that she must have broken her leg. There was already bruising to her upper thigh and hip. I just wasn’t sure how bad it was.

  I left Mary Beth in charge of Grandma and the two little ones. Murray finished the chores alone, and I headed down the icy road to our neighbours a mile away. That was the closest place with a phone for me to use to call the doctor and get some help. The doctor told me that the roads were too bad for him to head out right away. He’d come in the morning if they were passable. In the meantime we needed to keep Mother Coalter’s hip and thigh packed with ice to keep the swelling down and help with pain. It was two days later before the doctor could make the trip from town to our farm.

  The doctor confirmed my fears. Mother Coalter had broken her hip. He didn’t think she would be able to walk again. He gave her morphine for the pain and said we had to keep turning her to prevent bed sores. There was nothing more that he could do. He’d be back in a week to check on her.

  We were in quite a pickle. Mother Coalter was bedridden and required a lot of care. It was all I could do to look after her by myself. The morphine helped to dull the pain somewhat, but every time I turned her, she screamed out in agony. It was just pitiful to see her like that. It seemed as if things were spinning out of control.

  Newt came to our rescue once again. His help was invaluable. It was too much for Murray to have to do all the chores alone, and it was too much for Mary Beth to be left in charge of Charity, Chase, and Grandma Coalter if I went out to help him. I’m not sure how we would have ever coped without him. The weeks that followed Mother Coalter’s accident were harrowing.

  Now I must say, Mother Coalter was a tough lady, but the trauma was too much for her to bear. She suffered terribly. With each week that passed I saw her condition deteriorate. She became ghastly thin and pale. After weeks in bed, pneumonia set in. By May she was in grave condition. Jane Coalter passed away exactly one year, to the day, after her husband Allen had. Within a year we had lost three loved ones. Sometimes, life is just so very hard, and fate is cruel. The cross was almost too tough to bear.

  Ned and his family came home to his mother’s funeral. I had called him a couple of weeks before her death to let him know her condition. I thought that maybe he would want to come and see her. He hadn’t taken the opportunity. Now she was gone.

  From the time Ned arrived, he made it quite clear that he thought that he was in charge. He informed me of his intentions. The farm was being sold and I needed to make new living arrangements. He made it known that he thought that the farm’s rightful ownership had become his after the death of his father. His mother was no longer around to hamper his plans of selling. Ned had only humoured his mother’s wishes not to move. He really hadn’t wanted the burden of looking after her anyway. He knew his wife Emma and his mother would never have been able to live together. Now she was gone, and the farm would be sold.

  He was such an ass. Ned and Royce were such different people. It was hard to believe that they were brothers, or that he was Jane and Allen Coalter’s son. Ned was so arrogant and condescending. He had absolutely no consideration for me or the children whatsoever. We were his kin, but he didn’t even think of that. His mother had been right. All he wanted was the money that the farm sale would give him. That’s all that mattered to him.

  After Mother Coalter’s funeral, she was buried next to her husband, Allen, and her son Royce, in the graveyard at the church down the road. It was just a little over a year before since we had all attended church there together, as a family. Life was so cruel sometimes. They were all gone. I was alone once again with four children to raise, and soon not even a house for us all to live in. What tumultuous times. How would I ever deal with it all? Whatever would become of us?”

  Beth sniffles and I look up, “You got me crying, again, Gran. You’ve had to endure so much! I knew that you lost Royce, but I had no idea that your troubles didn’t end there. I can’t believe that life has been so unfair to you and your kids.”

  “No one ever said that life was fair, Beth, and bad things just happened. Those were dark days for me, for sure. They were some of the hardest months that I ever had to put in. Royce’s death almost crippled me emotionally, and then, to deal with losing Mr. and Mrs. Coalter so soon after, and then the farm, too. I was surely at my wits end! It had been hard enough to try and raise the twins on my own after Jed’s demise, but we had the house, and his family was there to help support us. This time I had four children to care for and no home to do it in. Royce would have turned over in his grave had he known what his brother had done.

  I remember feeling very distant and numb. Everything I did just seemed mechanical. I was so, so, very sad. Actually, I would probably have been diagnosed as being clinic
ally depressed by doctors nowadays. In those times, though, no one had really heard tell of depression, or if they did they would never have talked about it. No one wanted to be “sick in the head” so to speak. All I could do was keep going and try to survive.”

  the housekeeper

  “The day after Mother Coalter’s funeral, Ned sent his family back to Toronto. He stayed on to finalize things and try to sell the farm. Ma and Pa came and packed me and the children up, along with a few of our possessions, and took us back to their farm. They were horrified to think that Ned had taken total control of the farm with absolutely no consideration for me or the children. They knew that Royce and his folks would have been angry with him, but there was nothing to be done about it. There was no Will to designate ownership, and Ned was considered the only living heir.

  Within a week’s time Ned had a buyer. I was surprised to find out that it was Jed’s father, Mr. Harmon. His farm was next to the Coalter’s and he said that he wanted to expand. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Ned was so anxious to sell the farm and hightail it back to Toronto that he sold it dirt cheap, lock, stock, and barrel. Way below market value for those times. The paperwork only took a few days to finalize, and Ned left. I never heard tell of him again.

  Mr. Harmon came to Ma and Pa’s farm to fill me in on the details. As it turned out, the children and I were able to return to the house to live. The Harmons only wanted to make use of the land for the time being. They had no need for the house right away. Mr. Harmon was so upset with the way Ned had treated me and the children. He knew that I’d been given a really raw deal, so he took advantage of Ned’s eagerness to sell and haggled him down to rock bottom. He got the farm for less than half of what it was worth.

  Mr. Harmon gave me the sum of two-hundred dollars to compensate me for my loss. He felt that the farm should have rightfully been mine. I couldn’t believe his generosity, but he said that we were still family. He had been looking out for my best interests when he offered Ned the deflated price. He knew that if he was able to get the farm real cheap that he would be able to give me what I was owed.

  I knew that the Harmons had always loved Royce. They had been good friends and dear neighbours to the Coalters. It had been hard for them to see all the turmoil that we had endured the last sixteen months. They still held me in high regard. I had been Jed’s wife and was the mother of their grandchildren. They only wanted the best for all of us. They had always been ready to lend a hand, and they were continuing to do so. I was so grateful for all they had done to help. I had no idea how I’d ever begin to repay them for their kindness and generosity.

  Pa took me and the children back to the Coalter farm the next day, and we settled back in. We still had a cow and our chickens to care for. Mr. Harmon felt we should keep them as they had been ours. The children were happy to be back at the house. It was home to them. They needed that familiarity with everything that had happened. It was nice to know that we had a place to live, but it no longer felt like home for me.

  I needed to make plans for our future. Somehow, I had to find a way to raise my children. We wouldn’t be able to stay at the farm forever now that it didn’t belong to us, but we did have some time to figure it out, and I had enough money to get by on for a while. I just needed to keep my wits about me and my nose to the grindstone. I felt in my heart that I’d figure it all out. Somehow me and the children would make do. Somehow I’d find a way. I had to!

  We weren’t the only family having difficulties back then. Lots of disasters occurred during those early times. Not many families were untouched by some sort of loss. Lots of youngsters died of disease. People died of infections or complications of broken bones or falls. Lots of women and babies died during childbirth. It was just a fact of life. God’s will, as some folk thought.

  In the spring of 1926, a year after Mother Coalter’s passing, Martha Ashton died in childbirth. She was Logan Ashton’s wife. Martha had lost a baby in childbirth the previous year, and this time she and the baby both perished. What a terrible shame. They had three other little children that were now motherless. She had only been twenty-eight years old, a year my junior.

  I knew Martha from shopping at their store. They owned Ashton’s General Store. It was set up in the small village that was half way between us and the bigger town to the west. They were such a nice couple, and they had been really good to me over the years. I would barter with eggs or vegetables for other supplies I had needed. They always gave me a fair price.

  I went to Martha’s wake and funeral to pay my respects. It was my turn to give back to the community. So many wonderful people had been there for me during my time of need when I had been experiencing my deepest sorrows. After the funeral, they had a little luncheon in the church hall. That is where I was introduced to Martha’s sister. She was staying on for a while until Logan could find a suitable housekeeper and nanny for his children. There was no way he could run the store and look after three little ones, too.

  I never thought very much about the conversation at that time. I was only thinking how bad I felt for those poor wee children with no Ma, and how cruel life was. My children had no Pa. Somehow that seemed like a lesser evil. Mothers are the nurturers, and small children need that care.

  Three weeks later, I made a trip to Ashton’s General Store to sell some eggs and pick up a few supplies. There was no one else in the store at the time, and after I had made my purchases, Logan took me aside and asked if he could talk to me.

  “Anna,” he said, “I want to talk to you about something. I’m not sure how to go about this, so I’ll just get right to it. Martha’s sister has stayed on to help out with the children since Martha’s passing. She has been such a blessing. I have no idea what I would have done without her, but she needs to be getting back home now. That leaves me without anyone to care for the children and look after our home. I’m in the need for a nanny and housekeeper. I’ve put the word out, but no one of any merit has shown any interest. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I do know about your circumstances. I heard about what happened after Mrs. Coalter’s passing, and was saddened to hear about your situation. Anna, I know that you are someone that I can trust. You’re a good mother and a hardworking woman. Your children are all well behaved and polite. They would get on well with my three. I was hoping that you might put some thought into the position. You and your children would have to move into my home, but I have plenty of room to accommodate you all. Please give it some thought. Perhaps we can come up with some sort of an arrangement.”

  “Oh, my. You’ve kind of caught me off guard,” I said. “I do sympathize with your situation, but I don’t know what to say. There’s a lot to take into consideration. I’d certainly have to put a lot of thought into it before I could give you any sort of answer. I have my own children’s welfare to think about. I’m not sure how they would take it. They’ve all been through so much, especially the twins.”

  “I know, Anna. You’ve certainly had your share of heartache, too,” he replied. “All I’m asking is if you would put some thought into it. Martha’s sister was hoping to leave by the end of next week.”

  His proposition caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to think. I knew that eventually the children and I would have to leave the farm. The Harmons would probably give the house to one of their girls to live in when they got married. We had been getting by okay for the last year, and the idea of leaving Royce’s family home was such a big move. I certainly needed time to think. I couldn’t just give an answer to such a life-changing position on the spot. “I’ll do some thinking on it,” I told Logan, but I wasn’t convinced that the idea of becoming his nanny and housekeeper appealed to me.

  I really needed to discuss the idea with Murray and Mary Beth. They were ten and it would be a big change to them. They had always lived in the country on a farm. To move to the village would be quite an adjustment for all of us. Logan said he understood my thinking and knew that he had ju
st sprung the idea on me. He hoped that I would give it some consideration and get back to him. Then we could work out the details.

  Well, for the next few days all I did was think about Logan’s proposal. I kept mulling it around in my head. Part of me felt that it was a good opportunity for the children and me. It certainly would be an easier lifestyle and provide a long-term solution for our situation.

  Logan Ashton was a good man, and I knew that he would not expect more from me and the children than he had offered: room and board to all five of us in return for caring for his three children and house. I knew it would be a stable home with good food for the children to eat. I could put my savings aside for the time being.

  I went to talk to Ma and Pa about the idea. They had known that Logan Ashton was looking for a housekeeper. They actually thought that it wasn’t such a bad idea for me to consider. They told me I should give the proposal a great deal of thought. They knew that our time living at the Coalter farm would someday come to an end. They were worried about my welfare and my children’s future with no Pa to take care of us. It was tough times for a woman to provide for her young ones alone.

  I decided to let Murray and Mary Beth put some consideration into the idea. They were old enough to realize that the farm no longer belonged to us. They knew that sometime in the future we would have to move on. The last few years had been hard on both of them. They had had to take on extra responsibilities to help keep things going.

  The twins knew the Ashtons. They had been to their store many times. They felt Martha and Logan were very kind people. When I approached them about the subject of moving into the Ashton’s home to care for the children and tend to the household, they were quite receptive to the idea. They both hated the idea of leaving the farm, but knew we eventually had to.

  Murray said that he knew what it was like growing up without a Pa, and it was a real shame for those youngsters to have to grow up with no Ma to love them. Mary Beth said that I was a great Ma, and that if I had enough extra love to share with the Ashton children, we should give it a try. They both agreed that it would be a better life for all of us. In the end, it was their words of wisdom and encouragement that made the decision easy.