On December 17, 1907, Father married Anna Jacobson, and ideal helpmeet for him and a wonderful mother to
me. It was a happy day when we
moved into our new home on a five-acre farm in the small town of Tigard, Oregon. At six I started grade school and piano lessons. My mother had saved enough to buy a fine piano, and encouraged me through nine years of lessons. Thanks to her, music became a lifetime interest and vital part of my Christian life and career
Attending Lincoln High School in Portland, traveling the ten miles by electric train, I received a quality education in preparation for college.
At Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, my first year's tuition was covered by a scholarship, and tuition for the next three years by teaching Latin in the Academy. My parents' sacrificial help and my earnings from from various jobs took care of the other expenses. Sometimes it was "nip and tuck." Being the salutatorian for the Class of '25 was the final hurdle!
When my parents, after thirty-four years in Tigard, moved to retire in Los Angeles, I took a two-year leave of absence to go with them. Teaching at Culter Christian Academy and attending the Eleventh Street Baptist Church
meant much then, and was to be even more meaningful in years to come.On my train trip from Portland to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, I took a circle route to visit relatives in California, Chicago, Detroit, and northern Minnesota--meeting almost 100 in four
weeks, most of them for the
first time. This included my little maternal grandmother, 93, from
Sweden! What a legacy of fine "high quality" relatives!In the fall of 1945, I returned to Sumner for six more years, until marriage on August 21, 1951, in the Eleventh Street Baptist Church, to Harry West from Portland, a sterling man of God, and esteemed longtime Gideon, In this relationship I gained a big family of seven grown children and twenty-eight grandchildren (with ten more later). Now there are ninety great-grandchildren and an ever growing number of great-greats!
Harry and I moved that fall to Boise, Idaho, to operate a Christian bookstore for five years, and I also taught for three of those years. We had fine Gideon and church fellowship, and in the store a sense of mission.
Because of my parents' failing health, we moved to Los Angeles, arriving just before their "home-going" sixteen days apart. It was a blessed relief for Mother, 81, who lived thirty years beyond being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The next seven years I taught in Arcadia, Downey, and again at Culter Academy. When I retired in 1963, after thirty-seven
years
of teaching, we found a nice colonial apartment near the Eleventh Street Church,
where Harry served as a deacon, and I as organist. We also had fellowship
with the Gideons, Gospel Recordings, and Chinese for Christ. When the
church site was sold, we joined the historic Church of the Open Door.Harry died March 14, 1973, at age 87. For him it was eternal gain, for me. it was inexpressible loss; but the Lord's comfort was very real, and has continued through the years.
My next seven years, as organist at First Covenant Church, were a time of comfort and blessing.
In October, 1980, I moved into the Wycliffe Gardens retirement center in Huntington Beach, Orange County, an ideal place for my closing years. Those who attend the Christian Fellowship enjoy an excellent Bible teacher and guest musicians. I'm still pianist and secretary.
Friends in that group and in my church, the Warner Avenue Baptist, have been very helpful and caring. Looking back at sunset, I thank the Lord for the "pleasant places" and the "goodly heritage." My times are in God's hands, and I am sure the best is yet to be --'Beyond the Sunset.'"