Our Parents Wedding Day~28 September 1941

Ross Colberg and Josephine R

September 28 1941

St. Paul, Minnesota

Just this past week I found this in an old envelope as I have been going through some things from the past.  It took my breath away when I saw it.  This is a rose from the wedding bouquet of my mother.  The rose is over 72 years old.  I don't remember ever seeing it before.

I have not retouched this or altered the photo in any way.  I was astonished at the color and the green fern.  I just removed it from the envelope and placed it carefully on the back of my iPad for a dark background and snapped the shot.  I put it right back into the envelope and am now trying to decided how to preserve it and display it.  What a treasure, I am thrilled to have discovered it!

The following is an excerpt from the biographical sketch I wrote and complied for our family after my father died in 1979. I wrote the introduction and my piece and then I asked my Mom, two brothers, my husband,  and a close friend of Dad's to add something.  The compilation was a very exciting project portraying a unique perspective of my multi-faceted father from the people closest to him.  It was also excellent grief therapy for me.

The following is a portion of what my mother wrote about their meeting and marriage:

"To My Darling Children,

I was born in Pierre, South Dakota on May 17, 1919.  There was another big event that day as I have a twin brother named Joseph.  At that point in my life I had four sisters and three brothers; Letha, Lena, Harold, Margaret, William and Wilma who were also twins.  We lived on a farm about twenty miles from Ft. Pierre, South Dakota.

When I was five years old we lost our mother from an infection after giving birth to another baby girl, Ruby.  I am so sorry I never got a chance to know my mother as I know I would have loved her very much.

After I graduated from high school in Pierre in 1938 I moved to Bismarck, North Dakota in January of 1940.  I went to Bismarck to attend Beauty School.  During that six months I lived with a couple I met and who became dear friends, Rose and Fred Gerberding.

That move to Bismarck really changed my life. It was the best move I ever made because this is where I met Ross.  Yes, he definitely was the best thing that ever happened to me.  Through friends we met on a blind date.  He looked so handsome that night.  He had on dark pants, a white sports coat and tie.  We double dated with our friends and had such a wonderful time.  After that we saw each other all the time.  He was such a gentleman and always so nice.  Yes, it definitely was love at first sight!  We met on May 4, 1940 and we always had such a good time when we were together.

About Dec 1st of that year Ross was transferred to Fargo, North Dakota.  He worked for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.  It was a sad day for us both because we knew it would mean many months of separation.  Not having a car he didn't get home very often--I really missed him.  In the spring of 1941 I moved to Ellsworth, Wisconsin to stay with my friends, Rose and Fred, that had been transferred there earlier in the year.  Ross came there to see me a few times.

I August of 1941 I decided to go to work in St Paul, Minnesota.  At about that same time I learned that Ross had been transferred there too.  We were both so happy to know we would both be there.

On September 28, 1941 we were married  in a Lutheran Church in St. Paul at 8:30 in the morning. yes it was a very strange time to be married but Rose and Fred were our attendants and being a Greyhound bus driver, Fred had a run to make in the afternoon.  The main thing was that we were married!

It was a very small and simple wedding.  Ross' mother was the only relative there, but we were just thankful to have her with us.  We were just new in St. Paul so didn't know anyone to invite.  We were both working fortunately but worked opposite hours unfortunately.  So I'd get up in the morning and fix his breakfast and get him off to work and at night he'd wait up for me until midnight and then come down to the Ice Cream Parlor and walk me home.  We always stopped at a little hamburger place and had a nickel hamburger and a ten cent piece of cherry pie.  We were so happy and loved being married.   I really enjoyed being a housewife and always have.

Oh yes, I almost forgot our honeymoon.  It was a trip---from Minneapolis to St. Paul. After the wedding we went to get our pictures taken.  Then we went to breakfast with Ross' mom, Rose and Fred, and a couple of Fred's aunts that must have come along just to increase our numbers. Neither Ross nor I knew them.

Afterwards we jumped into the car, Rose and Fred in the front seat and Ross and me in the backseat. Sandwiched right in between us was none other than "Mama!"  This was so embarrassing to us at the time because we happened to run into some friends of ours on the street corner as we stopped at a light and it was obvious we had just been married.  Why?  Because I wore my wedding dress all day long and there she sat in the middle of us.

The next event of the day was a tour of the Capitol Building.  Over the years we laughed so many times about that, especially going there in my wedding dress.  Of course everywhere we went people stared.

Finally in the afternoon we put his mother on a train to send her home.  After that we stopped in a little place to have a drink and celebrated our wedding day.  After paying for the drinks we discovered we barely had enough money left to catch the streetcar home to St Paul which was just across the river. We had also been able to see Horace Heights put on big band show so we were pretty exhausted so we were happy to come home to our little apartment that we had just rented the week prior to our wedding.  I stayed there and got things ready and Ross lived at the YMCA until the day we were married.  The night before the wedding Rose and Ross' mom stayed with me in our apartment.  Everyone was a little frazzled and cramming three women in the bed was a bit much.  Just as we were about to go to sleep I said, "This is the first time I have ever slept with a Colberg!"  This sent my future mother-in-law into fits of laughter!"  She told that story repeatedly over the next many years.

Our apartment was tiny and our first home was so much fun.  In our home our living room was also our bedroom.  We had a Murphy bed that pulled out and down from the wall   So every day and every night we had to rearrange our furniture.  When the bed was up it had a nice mirror on the back of it so it looked just like a real living room.  Those were wonderful times.

I can remember how proud I was to be his wife, and how through our marriage I'd look at him and find it hard to comprehend that he was mine, all mine!  We didn't have much in the way of material things then, we went into our marriage with a few dish towels without hems and a few cents in our pockets but we were very much in love and we had each other, so what else really mattered?"

The End of Part I

Beautiful Couple~My Parents

Married 72 years ago last week

 on September 28, 1941

I miss them and feel grateful for

 Their wonderful parenting everyday!

A Simple Woman's Daybook~March 1, 2010

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So, For Today...Monday, March 1, 2010

Outside my window...it is overcast and looks like rain is coming soon. It is after 3:00 pm and I am just now getting to this. One of those days where the best laid plans...just didn't pan out as I thought they would.

I am thinking...how fortunate Jim's boss is. She went to Chili to her son's wedding in Santiago late last week. The wedding was Saturday. Yup, the Saturday of the big quake. We finally found out this morning they are all fine and the wedding went forth as planned but it was a day no one in Santiago will ever forget. They got the big jolt but due to good building codes their hotel was just fine. I was thinking what are the chances that we would know someone visiting Santiago just then. Weird.

I am thankful for...having the Women's Conference presentation behind me at last. Good experience but better viewed from this side.

From the learning room...so much about WWII right now. What an amazing piece of history and so incredibly sad.

I am reading...Vienna Prelude...yep, still at it. Plodding along in a very exciting book at a tortoise pace. I am embarrassed to keep putting this down.

From the kitchen...I did a major bit of grocery shopping today and have practically everything I will need for a few weeks. Whew! I have all the things for the kitchen put away, but I have several bags of things that go into the pantry sitting on my laundry room counter to put away.

I am wondering...How all our kids and grandkids are doing today. Piper is sick with the flu, Hazel still recovering from her pneumonia and I am hoping everyone else is dong well. I will be so glad when winter is over and everyone will hopefully be less susceptible to all the viruses going around.

I am wearing...Some jeans and a brown shirt. No jewelry right now and no shoes. Just took a little rest. I am still worn out from the past few weeks. Jim comes home later on Monday due to a little visit he pays his mom each week.

I am hearing..the neighbor's gardeners blowing down their yard, the music from the kitchen and someone hammering something in the distance.

I am going...to watch another DVD from War and Remembrance tonight. I have been learning so much from it and feeling a special connection to my dad as I watch it. I am wondering how much of a life changing experience it was for him and how he and mom dealt with it. He never talked about it much but he was a member of a medical corp in the Pacific Islands. It had to be a pretty brutal experience.

Today if I could change one thing...it would be that my parents were still alive so I could talk to them about these war torn years. I think theirs was a generation of people that shielded their kids from a lot of what they experienced during those years and during the depression.

I am quoting...I believe in Christ as I believe in the rising sun~Not because I can see it but because by it I can see everything else. C.S. Lewis
My spiritual thoughts include...wondering just why God's children have been warring since the beginning of time and how in that department very little has been learned or has changed.

Around the house...almost all the stuff is put away from Jim's snow camping and now I can just feel like things are almost back to normal after many months of upheaval. I still cannot seem to get all the dust gone on my hardwood floors. I am so thankful I don't have carpeting. It almost seems like the dust is rising out of the spaces between the floor planks. I think it is gone and then I find more. I have always cleaned my own house but I am sorely tempted to call a cleaning lady just once after this big remodel.

I am missing...a younger body so I could do more in a day. I am chuckling about a description my brother shared with me that an aging body is like a melting candle. The visual imagery is perfect, isn't it, ladies?

I am hoping...I actually accomplish my goals this week.

I have been procrastinating...getting a tax appointment so I can get the prep done.

One of my guilty pleasures...Saying I can do it tomorrow when I really can't muster up the gumption to do something tedious today. Whoops! I do hold myself to a pretty stringent schedule so I can do this now and again when I am not running off to work everyday.

One of my favorite things...Not running off to work every day.

A few plans for the rest of the week...paperwork, cooking, making some appointments, just the usual this and that. Dinner out over the weekend with Jim.

Here is a picture and thought I am sharing with you...


This is an old photo of my parents from 30 something years ago. I found it this week and tried to color correct it. It was almost completely faded away. My dad died when Laura was a baby so he was 61 when he died and would be 92 now and my mom would be 90 and has been gone six years in November. I really miss them still so much and always will. They were wonderful, kind parents and a perfect example of a happily married couple. They set the bar pretty high for us all.

Today is My Mom's Birthday

Although my mom passed away nearly five years ago I still think of her everyday and especially on her birthday.

This is the poem I wrote for her memorial service program.

Mom was a tiny little thing and so cute!
Unfortunately I look nothing like her at all.
Bummer!

My mom was so wonderful...truly a best friend to me, especially when I was an adult. We enjoyed doing everything together and I was so blessed to live near her except for about five years when we were first married. Mom was a devoted wife (oh my gosh...a wonderful example of a selfless wife, always doing things for my Dad!) She was a super mom and was always there for me, she never let me down. She was the best at supporting and loving unconditionally.

Mom would love these flowers, her favorite color was always purple!

She suffered so much when my father passed away...she lived 24 years as a widow and never adjusted to it. In 1991 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. What was supposed to be a fairly routine brain surgery (yeahrite!) turned out rather poorly and she was unable to live alone for the rest of her life. We could not have her at home with us due to her surgically induced disabilities and that was one of the most heart-breaking experiences of my life. She had done absolutely everything for me and I could not take care of her when she needed me.

I guess if there is any lesson in that it is that you should never promise you will never do something that you might just have to end up doing. She lived in a skilled nursing facility for 10 years. And 2 separate board and care facilities for the last two years. Fortunately, it was very near our home and I visited everyday for about two years and then a little less often, like every other day until she died. What I learned from that was that service truly does increase your love. I would never have loved my mom as much as I did had I not had the opportunity to do the basics for her. I also learned that no matter what you do for an ailing parent, it never feels like enough. So you just have to do your best and feel good about it in the end. And you also have to find balance in it so you can carry on a life of your own. In my case that meant, continuing to work, raise kids, have a life with Jim, Church...the whole enchilada.

Anyway, I am missing mom today. I remember one time she and I were spending the night at my brother's and we read that little bedside book Marilyn had, "Love You Forever" together lying in bed in the morning. It was the first time either of us had seen it and we both bawled our eyes out. It was so sweet and it turned out to be our story.

Jo-Jo Bean

"I'll Love You Forever
I'll Like you for Always...."