My Mother's Mother

Helen Lola (her birth certific reads Dowes) (she was born out of wedlock so she was known as Breadhead) (she was adopted by a couple names Raymond) (her step father was a Jorgensen) - so Helen Lola Broadhead Dowes Raymond Jorgensen and finally Jensen.

Grandma was born 3 March 1907, in Aurora, Sevier, Utah.Her Grandfather arranged for her adoption to a couple from Blackfoot, Idaho. Her mother was not of age and un married so, yes it was legal her mother later married and found her and she was raised from about the age of 9 (when this picture was taken) by her birth mother and step father. She married John W. Jensen in 1924 she was 17 he was 43. She would often tell us "it's better to be an old man's sweetheart, than a young man's slave".

Grandma had a "heart condition" so was never very active, although she managed to raise 5 children. She was good with her hands, I guess we call it "crafts". She did crochet, knit, tatting, oil paint, and many other things that were popular in her day.

She was very fun to be with, she was a smoker, and she liked her coffee in a glass. I remember her with a "glass" of coffee and a cigarette most of the time. I visited her as a child during the summer a couple of times and later as an adult I stayed with her after she had a surgery. She liked to watch wrestling on T.V. , and once in a while she had opportunity to go to the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City to enjoy it. She also liked mystery programs on radio.

She was a good cook, a dump cook like me I guess. I asked her to give me her receipt for Danish Dumplings one time and she said we would just have to make some to get it right. So I followed her around the kitchen writing down everything she did, a dash of this, a pinch of that. I did that several times to learn how to make different dishes.

Here is John W. and Helen Lola Jensen on their wedding day. 29 Jan. 1924. They made their home in Richfield, Sevier, Utah.

Here is the Jensen Family about 1940. Back row is Lars, Guila, Jack, Grandma, Grandpa, Beverly and Afton Jensen.

I thought I had a photo of her just before she died in June 1976, but it's not on the hard drive, so I will have to save that for later.

I hope you enjoy my grandmother, we all loved her very much. I remember going to her home for Thanksgiving and sometime Christmas, quite often she would be in our home for holidays as well.

There is much more I remember about her, she had a deep base voice and my grandfather sang tenor. I loved to hear them sing together, and they sang the wonderful old music you don't here today ie: Let me call you sweetheart, Big rock candy mountain, and many others.

Sorry about that

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted the bit about my grandfather! I do better and catch up soon, but not tonight! Tomorrow is out "Temple Day" and my coordinator is out of town, so I get the opportunity to make the schedule, and put out any fires that happen on our shift tomorrow. I've only changed the schedule about 10 times, and as soon as I thought I had it right someone called in and said she was not going to be there. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Anyway most of my computer time has been spent on the Lord's work this week, for last week I have no excuse.

On To the Past

Wow!!! I am finally feeling better. Anyone that catches this crud need to get a Z-Pak ASAP, the first dose has me up and feeling much better.

As promised, here is some more family history. I think this will begin my Mother's parents and siblings. You will not get it all at once, because there are too many of them and I hope to give you pictures and a small history of each one. So to begin with my grandfather - John William Jensen (he never liked the name William so it was usually John W. Jensen) Grandpa died when he was almost 70 years old. He was 27 years older than my grandmother, Helen Lola Dowes Jorgensen Jensen (we'll discuss this later).

I was only 7 years old when he died, but I remember him. He was a kind man and he loves us kids. He would cut an apple with his pocket knife and share slices with us. (He didn't have any teeth). He would give us "Danish Coffee" (more milk and sugar than coffee) and he drank his out of a saucer, he pored it from the cup to the saucer to cool it faster. He wore an old tan sweater and rode a bicycle, couldn't afford a car. I remember riding on the handle bars of that old bike. He lost all his wealth (I understand it was considerable) in the depression on 1929, he saved enough to build a small home for his family in Richfield, Utah and went to digging ditches to feed them. He was water master in Richfield for many years.
.John W. Jensen as a young man probably taken in the late 1890's.

John William Jensen cropped from a frmily picture taken in Richfield, Utah. John was probably about 20 years old so this would be about 1901.

John W. Jensen about 1941, about 60 years old.

John Married Helen Lola Broadhead Jorgensen in 1924, he was 43 years and she was 17. Some say he married out of compassion, she had an "out of wedlock child". But I think they loved each other and between the 2 of them they had 5 more children. Here is a picture of John and Helen on their wedding day. Taken in Richfield, Sevier co., Utah. Where they raised their children and lived until their deaths.
That's enough for now, next time I'll concentrate on my grandmother. She was such a fun grandma, I loved her so much!!!

cough, cough, hack, hack!!

This cough is making me crazy!!! I cough all night long, I end up sleeping in the recliner so I don't keep dad up. I probably caught it in the traffic jam we had to traverse on the way home. Oh well, this too will pass!!! I hope SOON!

We are back in the swing of things here in old So. Cal., and it's summer here. I really do not like a "summer" cold. If the truth be known, I really do not like summer. The temperature has been in the 80's and we have "Santa Ana Winds" to help things along. We had an earth quake the other night just to remind me I still live in So. Cal. weather I like it or not. Anyway after an wonderful holiday with cold and snow we have to come back to reality and I promise sometimes this week I'll get back to what I intended this blog to be. Thanks to all my darling children for a Christmas to remember!!!

After Christmas

After Christmas, we moved from the Jim Fernley Home to the Troy Fernley Home. Gene went skiing with Nicole, Troy & Tasha and Jacquie went to RosaLee's to work on and eventually finish a quilt. My one regret about our stay is that I didn't get any pictures of our "grand dog" Jack. Jack is a lovable happy big yellow lab. So I'm going to scan a picture of Jack that is in the back of the F3 booklet you got for Christmas. Has anyone come up with a caption for this picture Yet???

We had a rousing New Years Eve party at the Jim Fernleys. (all these Fernley's become a little confusing don't they?) We were able to meet and greet many of our family and were happy to see the babies and enjoy all their noise. It's a little dis-concerning to be the oldest couple in a group and to have married grand children is really strange, but we are getting used to it.

We left Utah on Friday the 2nd of January 2009, stopped at Ihop in Provo for breakfast, and (many of you will think this is weird) at that Ihop Grandpa (Gene) noticed that they had butter pecan syrup, his favorite. We have not been able to find it in the stores, so we came away from Ihop with not only breakfast but a full gallon of butter pecan syrup!!

The road was pretty clear until we were on I15 in the middle of Vegas, then every thing pretty much stopped. We were slow all the way to State Line, so getting home from Vegas was about 6 hours.

Can you tell I'm board??? I wanted to open the Sun Roof and stand up to get a better picture, but Grandpa wouldn't hear of it. Sometimes he's no fun.

Sooooo We are home, safe and sound and had a wonderful time in Utah with all our dear family. We have the new printer connected and it is working wonderfully, so Thanks, Thanks, and ever Thanks to all of those who made our 2008 Christmas Holidays so wonderful!!!!!

Before Christmas

We stayed over night in Vegas with Loralie & Family, then on the 23rd we went to St. George, Utah to see the new baby (Sway) and play with Krew (Sway's big brother) for a few minutes.

The first thing Krew said was GG (great grandma) come see baby Way (Sway)! Isn't he adorable?? Baby Way I mean. Actually Krew is pretty adorable as well isn't he??

Jaci brought Emma over to play for a little while and let us get a hug from her, thanks Jaci!!! And thanks Jaci and Jonathan for the Christmas picture of the 3 of you. Miss Emma is getting cuter every time we see her.

Next we drove to Panaca, NV where Nana lives. Nana didn't want to go to Salt Lake with us so we stopped by to give her her Christmas present. She was especially glad to see Mikel & Emily and the babies. Here is Nana enjoying "baby way" (Sway).

Last of all before we headed off to Utah, here is Nana and her Christmas present, a digital frame that has over 700 pictures on it. It takes a couple of hours to get through the whole thing. Notice the pictures on the frame is of Aunt Beverly, Nana's sister.




Now we are on the road again, hoping we get to Salt Lake (actually Harriman) before the promised snow hits the Wasatch Front. Here is some snow from a previous storm on the road between Panaca and Cedar City.

Christmas

It's really hard to get a new bike for Christmas, especially when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground! Emily did a good job being nice about not being able to ride her bike, instead she road it around and around the couch in the family room.

It's wonderful to get a new "boom" box on Christmas, it doesn't matter if it is snowing outside. C.J. really likes his unique radio and CD player.

Nathan likes to vacuum, the carpet has never been cleaner sense Nathan got a new vacuum for Christmas.

Mom and Dad got everything they wanted as well, and Grandma & Grandpa sat back and enjoyed the whole deal.

Grandma & Grandpa received a very big stocking from Santa with a ton of "wonderful" stuff stuffed in the toe. Thanks Jim & Steph for a really great Christmas!!!!

As Promised

On Christmas day we were pretty much "snow bound". Here is a picture from Jim's back door, you will notice that these pictures are from the inside out. It snowed most of the day and the wind blew drifts so that poor Callie couldn't even go out to do her "duty". Poor Callie.
Here is a picture from the front window. The house across the street belongs to some really good neighbors. I did get out and shovel snow, after the storm was over and after watching Jim shovel for several minutes. It was really fun, I haven't shoveled snow for years. Hooray for a white Christmas.