From Leora Wilson’s memoirs: “My mother, Laura Jordan Goff, and I moved here to Guthrie Center, Iowa, February 10, 1948. Mother moved from Omaha where she had lived and kept house for my brother, Clarence Goff, for several years. I moved from near Perry.”

Laura left four grandchildren in Omaha, while Leora’s six (at the time) lived in Iowa. The two women had come home to their roots and were about the same distance for children and grandchildren to come for a visit.

The house had only two bedrooms, but they had a fold-out couch, where I remember sleeping with cousins. Eventually a bed was added to the unfinished basement.

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“Mother and I lived here [in Guthrie Center] together almost 15 years,” Leora wrote. “Mother passed away December 6, 1962. She enjoyed life–crocheting, going places, and was hospitalized twelve days before her death. She was a wonderful mother, so good to look on the bright side of every problem. She was with Dad and me for all the births of our children.”

Grandma Leora could be described the same way: a wonderful mother, so good to look on the bright side.