Remembering Grandma

     It's hard to believe that just one year ago today, my Grandma went to be with the Lord.  We moved her into our home six months earlier because she needed our care.  I can't begin to describe the joy she brought into our lives -- or what a privilege it was to care for her in her last days.  It was an honor to sit by her side as she left this earth to enter the Lord's presence.

Martha Schmidt

February 6, 1912 - May 10, 2009

Grandma was 97 when she passed away;

this picture was taken at age 75.

Remember 'Glamour Shots' in the '80s -- yep, she was there!

I have a framed picture from this sitting -- she was wearing a boa!

She loved to have her picture taken.

Below are the memories I shared at her funeral.  It put a smile on my face to look through some pictures and read this again today...

Memories of Grandma

     If our mom were here today, she would be able to give you a rundown of our Grandma’s life achievements and every way in which she served others over the years. But Mom’s not here and we don’t have all the details of that information. We know that Grandma made a great career for herself that we were all very proud of and we’ve heard countless stories about her Sunday School teaching days and other ways in which she served the Lord, but what we’d like to share with you today are the reasons why she was so special to us.

     Our Grandma was genuinely sweet and that sweetness flowed through and through. And she was cute! What more can we say? She lived life to its fullest and always made sure it was fun. She had a great sense of humor and never took herself too seriously.

     Grandma could laugh at her own mistakes. One of our favorite memories is of a time when we were traveling to a picnic out of town. She had baked a cake and it was on the floor in the back seat. All the way there she kept reminding us kids to be careful not to put our feet in the cake. Well, we were almost to our destination when a sudden move by the driver caused Grandma to try to brake from the back seat – and unfortunately, she planted her foot right into that cake. There was laughter in that car for the entire trip.

     Grandma always put her family first and every single one of us was made to feel special - like we were the only one that mattered. There was no task that was too much for her to do, if she was doing it for her children, grandchildren or great grandchildren. Grandma regularly invited us for overnight stays – one at a time, so that we each had our own special times with her. When it was your turn, she always made your favorite foods. For us girls, she let us soak in her tub with some special bath oil, gave us a treatment, slept in the spare room with us, did our nails, curled our hair, gave us a facial. It just never ended. She went above and beyond to make each one of us feel that we were the most important. For the boys, they remember basketball, bowling and shuffleboard with Grandma – and she participated in all of it.

     Grandma loved to drive fast. She drove a Cadillac and she told us that Cadillacs were made to go fast. She further explained to the great grandkids, “when you get to be my age, your age is the speed limit.”

     Cooking was one of her favorite things to do and when she did it, she had no problem bragging on herself. Chicken noodle soup, fried chicken, German thin hotcakes with sweet gravy, pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, & zweibach were her specialties. We always got such a kick out of hearing her say "that's pretty good, if I do say so myself." She taught us all to use health salt. There isn't really any health salt, but it is a vegetable salt that is purchased from the health food store, so we always called it health salt. That was the secret to many of her dishes and can be found in all of our cupboards.

     Grandma loved fashion. She was always dressed to perfection and anything she wore always had a flash and a flare to it. We didn’t realize, however, how much of an influence Grandpa had on her fashion until he passed away. Her wardrobe went from classy to shabby-chic, and it was about this time that the famous white boots were born. They started out as an assessory to her favorite denim outfit but soon became the core piece of attire for everything she wore. We eventually had to accept that no matter where we were going or what kind of dress the occasion might call for, the boots would appear. On more than one occasion, our mom and dad offered a handsome payout if one of us would swipe the boots, but we couldn’t do it because by then it had become something we looked forward to each time we saw her.

     Grandma loved to play table games and a lot of special memories were made while we sat around a table playing her favorites -- dominoes & Skip-Bo. One thing we all noticed as we got a little older was that Grandma was a bit of a cheater. Although she did it so innocently, we usually called her on it and then we all had a good laugh.

     Another fond memory was of Christmas one year. We had gotten to the age where we'd shake all of the gifts under the Christmas tree to try and guess what they were. She thought she'd outsmart us and purposefully put the wrong person's name on the packages. By the time Christmas rolled around, she couldn't remember whose was whose and we all ended up opening the wrong packages. That made for a good laugh.

     Grandma was always trying to improve herself. She read self-improvement books constantly and tried all kinds of over-the counter cosmetic improvements. She was a very trendy person. She always exercised with Jack LaLane and was worried about her waistline and having a "tummy." It was not unusual to see her in her driveway, wearing a bathing suit to wash her car - even well into her 80's.
If we were sick, Grandma had the cure! It didn’t matter what the ailment was, her course of treatment always started out with a massage. I’m sure we would test her nerves by giggling and squirming the whole time, making it almost impossible, but if you knew Grandma, you know that those massages were not the soothing, relaxing kind – they were intense! She didn’t even call it a massage – it was a “treatment”. The treatment was usually followed up with one of her health drinks that she would mix up in her blender – they contained ice, fruit and lots of Shaklee vitamins. Today they are called smoothies.

     As kids we didn’t appreciate those treatments for their true value – but as adults, we went to her many times to get the kinks out of our necks or to find relief from sciatic pain. Those strong hands of hers really could work wonders. Tell her where your pain was and she could immediately pinpoint the source of the pain and start working it out.

     A couple more things that are unforgettable are grandma’s laugh, and the way she sounded when she sang at church. The hug and kiss on the cheek we always got when we saw her, and the smile that always accompanied them.

     Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house with the whole family. We always had homemade chicken noodle soup and zweibach, there was a fire in her wood burning stove, and she would put up that Santa Claus face with the nose that was a button for the loudest Christmas song ever. She would put it up knowing that one of the grandkids was going to push that button every 30 seconds. We think she enjoyed watching the other adults finally tire of the song and try to hide it from the kids.

     Yes, we have many fun memories of Grandma, but Grandma wouldn’t have been who she was if life had only been about fun. She experienced some very hard times in life – and she endured the hard times by putting her faith in God and trusting that He would always take care of her. It’s one thing to have such a positive, bright outlook on life when things are going well, but she had this attitude despite the fact that she lost her firstborn son when he was an infant; her youngest child was born with severe handicaps and died at the age of 32; her husband passed away, making her a widow at age 63; and then she watched her only surviving daughter fight a losing battle with cancer. All of this, and she was still that fun, sweet woman we’ve described.

     What a rich legacy we’ve been left with! An excellent role model for wife, mother and grandmother. Grandma’s admirable disposition in life came from her strong faith in Jesus Christ and her willingness to take what life gave her and make the best of it.

     As we grew to adulthood and had children of our own, we watched as she treated our children the same way she always treated us. And now becoming grandparents ourselves, we want our grandchildren to grow up loving us as much as we love our grandma. We want to treat our grandchildren the same way she treated us.

When I grow up, I want to be like Grandma!

Obituary
Martha Jean Schmidt
1912 – 2009

Martha Schmidt was born on February 6, 1912 in Beaver, Oklahoma and passed away on Sunday, May 10, 2009, at the age of 97. She was the daughter of Jacob and Anna Goertzen, the fourth of eleven children. She married David D. Schmidt on May 10, 1931, and they had three children, Sonny, Alberta Mae, and Barbara June. Dave & Martha were married for 43 wonderful years before he passed away in 1974.
In 1937, due to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, the family moved to Shafter. In 1945, Dave & Martha moved to Rosedale, where Dave owned and operated a Mobil gas station at the corner of Rosedale Highway and Allen Road, and Martha was a homemaker. In 1953, she attended Massage School to become a masseuse and opened her own business in their home in 1954. A few years later, she went to Beauty School and added a beauty shop to her massage business, creating Martha’s Health & Beauty. Martha worked as a masseuse and beautician until she retired in 2001 at the age of 89.
Martha loved life. She loved to sew and cook wonderful meals for her family. She loved fashion and always kept pace with contemporary styles. Her friends and family can all testify that because of her sense of humor and bright personality, time spent with Martha would always guarantee lots of fun, laughs and good times.
Martha loved the Lord and served Him faithfully. She taught many Sunday School classes for all ages at Rosedale Bible Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband and all three of her children, so we can only imagine the celebration that took place in heaven when she joined them on May 10th – her wedding anniversary and Mother’s Day. She was also preceded in death by her great grandson, Marvin Ross Sprayberry III.
Martha is survived by her son-in-law, Lawrence Elrich and wife, Fern; and four grandchildren, Caryn Funkhouser and husband, Tom; Curt Elrich and wife, Susan; Colette Krause and husband, Dan; Charis Eyraud and husband, Eric; ten great grandchildren, Jason, Shawn and Arryn Sprayberry; Andrew, Layne (Bettis) and Mike Krause; Crystal Arredondo, Amy and Alyssa Pecarovich; Ashlyn and Mallory Eyraud; and three great great grandchildren, Roly Sprayberry, Emma Sprayberry and Avery Krause. She is also survived by siblings, Bill Goertzen, Henry Goertzen and Esther Smith. These are her blood relatives, but she was really everyone’s “Grandma Schmidt”.