By the time I graduated from high school in 1962, my folks had been making payments on a small farm only a decade. After Dad was discharged from US Army Air Force, he had searched for a farm to buy.
But the counselor at Earlham High School determined during my freshman year that I should aim for college. With graduation coming up, just how would we pay for it?
When Grandma Leora heard about the dilemma, she decided to cash some bonds, enough to give $1000 to each of her four adult children. The money she gave Mom paid for my freshman year at the State College of Iowa.
I didn’t realize it then but that Grandma had bought those bonds with life insurance money she received after the loss of Dale, Danny, and Junior. Those brothers helped me get started in college. I am so humbled by this.
I was the first my immediate family to get to attend college. My sophomore year was challenging because, even with a small scholarship and the job, I still couldn’t make ends meet.
I had a small scholarship, but it mainly paid for books. The college financial aid office helped me apply for a National Defense Student Loan. I learned that the new Donald O. Rod Library would open in the fall and would have jobs. They suggested I begin working in the old library over the summer after my freshman year, to secure a job in the new library. They found enough hours for me to work in three different areas in the library to make ends meet.
By working in the library each semester and each summer, one of them full-time, I graduated in 1966 with a loan to pay off.
But Grandma’s gift was just one of the legacies she blessed me with, especially knowing the provenance of those three brothers who lost their lives just about the time I was starting life.
Another beautiful and endearing example of the love and generosity in your family, Joy. And what a stunner of a pic. Lovely then…lovely now. 🥰
Bless you, dear Vicki!
Right back to you, my friend. 🥰❤️🥰
I got teary-eyed reading this. Your grandmother was a beautiful person. Your family stories are an inspiration…lives of love and service to others.
Thank you, Linda. I’m going through Grandma’s diaries. Her days and weeks and months were filled with serving in her little community. What a blessing to really learn this so many decades later.
Isn’t it amazing how prices for an education have gone up?! I recall one of my bills was $900/semester for room, board, and tuition. Today, that would hardly get one into college, let alone pay for a semester. Your writing of the uncle’s whose insurance money helped pay for your college education is a fitting tribute.
Costs sure have gone up, as well as those student loans! Isn’t God amazing? When I began writing Leora’s stories, I didn’t realize her insurance-money gift would come full circle. Amazed and humbled by all of this.
What an added legacy fir your uncles. Even in death, they helped take care of the family.
It’s still hard to process, isn’t it, GP?
As I’ve always said, the more I learn about that generation, the more amazed I become!!
You are so right, GP!
You worked very hard to make it through college. What a blessing that you got a start from your grandmother, and your uncles.
Amazing, huh! Thank you, Elaine.
That’s a beautiful story, Joy. And I know you did your grandmother proud with the legacy she left you.
She would certainly be please, Eilene!
Nice story with a very happy ending, Joy.
Thank you, Don. I’m still amazed and humbled by it all.
Wow! Great story! Leora so loved her family. I know she had little to give, but she was grounded in her priorities.
Thank you, Pete. I’m going through her diaries, which began in 1958. She’d made a home for her widowed mother for a decade at that point, and invested her own last decades serving her family and little community.
Inspiring! What a role model!
Lovely!
It’s wonderful that your grandmother got you through your first year of college, financially, and it’s really something that the family of those guys who gave their lives for their country was rewarded. Uncle Sam paid my way through college with the GI Bill.
My favorite Guy had just graduated college when Vietnam loomed, so he didn’t get any help. He’s applying to the VA for possible help since he’s developed Parkinson’s, probably from his time in Vietnam. Thank you for your service, Tim!
After WWII, my dad went to college on the GI Bill. His was the first in his family to get a college education.
The GI Bill was such a godsend for veterans!
It certainly was. This is one tim the government got it right!
Leora and Doris must have been so proud of you when you graduate from college!
Yes, all three living grandparents came to graduation with my folks!
That must have been a joyful day! (Sorry about the pun, but it’s appropriate.)
Love it!
😊
Your uncles sure did love their family-on earth and from up in Heaven! God bless Leora for starting you on the path to write the four books chronicling the history of your family. 🙂
Bless you, Nancy. I’m still amazed and humbled by all of it.
Great story, Joy!
Thank you!
I love this Joy! What a legacy and you have made her proud.
I can just see her perkiness, enjoying this story. Thank you, Darlene.
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