What a Woman!

My posts and comments are intermittent this weekend cause I'm having connection troubles for some reason. I'd like to share this obituary, however, if I can get connected it to post. (Yes, I like to read them - ya know I'm strange like that.)

Martha Matilda Wagner was born September 26, 1906 in Fedor, Lee County, Texas. She was the second of seven children born to Hermann and Pauline Melde Zschech. Martha was a genuine farm-girl picking more than 300 pounds of cotton a day. She could wield an axe to chop wood for heating and cooking stoves. She could cook and bake bread and pies like no one else could. She could milk the cows, slop the hogs, feed the chickens and be a good nurse to her younger siblings. She could do everything except pull a plow...this she would also have done if possible. Such was her will and determination to live her life. The highlight of the week was maybe a trip to town (Giddings), a bag of candies, apples and oranges. There were always Sunday dinners after church with family, friends and more often than not, the church pastor and/or the parochial school teacher. She began to attend school at the age of five...because her older brother would not attend alone. The donkey ride one way was nearly two miles. In her later years she could still recite Luther's Small Catechism verbatim...in German of course. Martha lived furthest away from the farm after her marriage; however, she was always there first and stayed the longest in time of sickness or sorrow. The strain was enormous on the parents in January 1943 when her brother, Fred, was killed in the South Pacific during World War II. The story of her pre-marriage years would cause much laughter and some tears. She was a devoted daughter and extremely reluctant to leave the home farm. She met her love Edwin Hermann Wagner at the 1926 Fedor July Fourth Picnic. This old picnic ground site is within a stone's throw from the cemetery where they are buried. They were married in May 1928. Ed died in 1995 at the age of 90. Together they had one son, Elmo, born in 1930. Martha and Ed farmed until the mid-thirties when Ed became a meat processor and owned markets in Lampasas and LaGrange. Ed took a whirl at restaurant life in Giddings when he built Parkway Café on the east then outskirts of town. Ed concluded that he made a mistake and moved the family to Austin, managing various Kash- Karry Markets. Martha remained devoted to being a housewife and mother. She was a sales lady in an Austin dress shop for some five-six years. However, her home and yard were her hobbies. The house inside could always pass a white-glove inspection and her yard was always full of flowers surrounded by manicured green grass. She lived a long and prosperous life. The woman was never idle. Martha is survived by her son Elmo and his wife Pat Wagner of Austin. Martha and Ed were long time members of Hope Lutheran Church, Austin. Church services have been arranged at Trinity Lutheran Church, Fedor, where Martha was baptized, confirmed and married. It seems only meet and right Martha leaves this world by way of that very same altar. Her services will be held Sunday, February 4, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. Pastor Leif Hasskarl, officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. There will be refreshments afterwards at the old school house, next to the church. Florists in Giddings are: Flowers By LaVerne 979-542-6263, Blossoms & Bows 979-542-9764, and The Secret Garden 979-542-2457. Come if you can. The drive through the truly pastoral country-side is worth the effort...not to mention visiting one of the oldest Lutheran churches in the region. Let this be a celebration of life...not a funeral. All arrangements made through and with Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home, Giddings, Texas. 979-542-3113. 588 N. Main. 78942