Farmer Gary and I have a twice-daily tête-à-tête in the sunroom during which time we read obituaries. It’s not my thing, but Gary is a dedicated condolences-giver.

Even when it’s been a generation since the last communication, his ears will perk when I start reading the online obit:

“Dad bought a calf from his grandfather once. When’s visitation?“

Recently, we added information from the Ancestry app to our routine. It provides that week’s birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and death-date memorials from your family tree.

I remarked to Gary that it was the centennial of the passing of his great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Shaeffer Wigger. As I opened her page on our family tree and started reading her obituary aloud, it was a relief to see she’d died in her sleep.

But then … oh, why did they have to include that?!

Maybe 100 years ago, it wasn’t embarrassing to have “snoring” included as part of your obituary. Let’s hope so. Poor Mary, widowed just a half year earlier, had but a few years to enjoy her first grandchild, Gary’s dad, Andrew.

I suppose we can find it in our hearts to forgive the obituary writer, though, as “… was a good Christian woman, loved by all who knew her, and was a kind and loving mother. May she rest in peace” was a fine ending, telling us all we really needed to know about our Mary.

She was a first-generation American. Mary’s immigrant parents were born in Prussia and Bavaria.

In her honor and memory, I spent a few hours searching online for more information about Great-Grandma Mary. Sadly, nary a photo. And the government can’t agree on the exact date of her wedding, but we can safely say she married Paul Wigger in May of 1889, when she was 25. They had seven children.

Mary is buried in the Ferdinand cemetery, next to Paul.

Someday, maybe we’ll find a photo of Mary and Paul, in which case we’ll add it here. Meanwhile, Gary happily announced his great-grandmother is included in this week’s “100 Years Ago” column in The Ferdinand News.

And there it is. Again.

Rest in peace, Great-Grandma. Sorry about adding to all the noise about … well, you know … a century later.

---

Would you like to receive an email notice when there’s a new Too Much Brudders story? Sign up here: