Auntie and Uncle Ed

Let's talk a bit about Auntie and Uncle Ed.  These two people are my grandparents on my mother's side of the family.  They didn't give birth to my mother but they helped raise her.  My mother and her siblings came to live with the Ehri's when Mom was eight years old.  I have always thought of Auntie and Uncle Ed as my grandparents.  Auntie grew up on a farm in the Benson, Minnesota area.  She came from a large Norwegian American family with the surname Iverson.  Auntie (Anna) eventually moved to Minneapolis and married Ed Ehri.  Uncle Ed worked for Pillsbury flour mills.  They established a home in south Minneapolis and planted a huge garden in the lot they owned next door to their house.  The growing season yielded an excellent crop of vegetables and in the Fall the canned produce filled the shelves in the basement storage room.  Auntie married later in life and never had children of her own.  She became a parent while she was in her mid forties.  She and Ed provided a home for Mom and the others and did her best to provide for them during the depression years.  As a family my parents brought us kids over to Auntie and Uncle Ed's house quite often for dinner and visiting.  Just walking into their house was a treat because the smell of freshly baked yeast rolls filled the air.  Oh, those rolls!!  I can still remember the smell of those rolls.  I dwell on the happy memories I have of Auntie and Uncle Ed.  The time spent with them passed quickly.  Uncle Ed was gone by the time I turned ten and Auntie passed away when I was eighteen.  The house with the big garden was sold and I rarely ventured over to their old neighborhood in south Minneapolis.  But, I remember those early days with Auntie and Uncle Ed well and I give thanks to these people who helped raise my mother and became grandparents to all us kids.