Loss
A couple of days ago, we found out that our aunt, Esther Hein had passed away. She was 84 years old. Esther was the eldest of my husband, Bob’s grandmother’s children from her second marriage. I am so sorry to see her go. With her passing, all of Grandma’s children are gone. It is now left to the grandchildren to carry on the legacy Grandma started. Esther had lived much of her adult life in California and Oregon, choosing that milder climate over the harsh Montana winters. Because of where they lived, we didn’t see Esther’s family very often, but she did her best to come for visits to see her parents, Walt and Vina Hein, and siblings Marion Kanta, Walt Schulenberg, Eddie Hein, and Butch Hein and their families in Montana and Wyoming as often as she could manage.
It was on one of her trips to visit her parents, that I first met Esther. It was a good meeting for me, because when I married into the family, my husband Bob asked me to just cut his hair for him. Well, that was a really bad plan. I had never cut a guy’s hair, and it looked awful. His mother had to try to fix it. Ugh!! While we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa, Bob decided to ask Esther to cut his hair. She was trained to do that, so it was a 
good plan. Esther took pity on me, and she taught me how to cut Bob’s hair. It is a skill that has served me well over the last 50 years, and one for which I will always be thankful to Esther for…as will Bob.
Esther was as skilled seamstress and artist. I remember a set of bathroom curtains she made for my mother-in-law, (her sister-in-law) Joann Schulenberg. She loved them and in her later years, while I was taking care of her when she had Alzheimer’s Disease, she never forgot to tell me about the beautiful curtains that Esther had made for her. My mother-in-law loved Esther dearly. When they were first married, my mother-in-law and father-in-law, Walt Schulenberg often kept Esther at their house in town during the harsh Montana winters, so she wouldn’t miss school, because they couldn’t always get her to town from the ranch. Esther was almost like their own daughter, except that they were too young to have a daughter her age at the time. Esther never forgot how special they were to her, and when she started painting, she painted a landscape picture on a saw 
blade for her brother, Walt. He cherished it always. She also painted a set of TV trays for him, one of which I have now. Her work was beautiful. While she couldn’t come for visits anymore, she loved keeping in touch with the family, and spoke to my sister-in-law, Debbie Cook on a regular basis. They were very close. My sister-in-law, Brenda Schulenberg also kept her updated by printing out and mailing her many of the family stories from my blog. Esther loved reading all about the younger generation as they grew up. Esther was a beautiful soul, and we are going to miss her very much.
Our grandfather, Andrew Schulenberg was a man of fortitude. One event from his teen years could easily have killed him or at the very least crippled him, but he wouldn’t let a “little thing” like having to have his leg amputated following a hunting accident, stop him. Young Andy spent a year in the hospital, while the doctors tried desperately to save his badly damaged leg, but in the end, the leg was too badly damaged and infected, so they had to amputate. That must have been a devastating event for a fifteen-year-old boy, but Grandpa had fortitude, and he refused to let it take him down. He hadn’t spent a year in the hospital fighting for his life to give up on it now. His life would be different than he expected, but then that happens to a lot of people. Although probably not to the degree that it did with Grandpa.
Grandpa went on to do many things in his lifetime. He farmed in the Forsyth, Montana area until the late 1920’s. Then, he owned and operated his own trucking company…hauling grains, coal, corn, and beets in the 
1930’s. Following his years in trucking, Grandpa worked for the State Highway Department until 1946 and also operated the Kokomo Club, west of Forsyth until 1950. It was really at this point that Grandpa’s life really changed, and at this time that he was going to face his biggest challenges. At that point, in the early 1950s, he began serving as undersheriff and then, served as the Sheriff of Rosebud County from 1955 to 1972. This may not have seemed so remarkable for most people, but remember that Grandpa had a literal peg leg from the time he was 15 years old. I remember his leg well. It was not like the peg legs you see in the pirate cartoons, but was rather a good-sized leg, much like carrying a small tree trunk around with you, and yet if you didn’t know he had it, you might not notice it. Grandpa was a big man, and his legs were strong. He carried that leg with a strength that was unmatched by anything most people could produce.
Remember too, that the reason Grandpa lost that leg was a hunting accident. He was shot in in the leg. That 
caused him to rather dislike guns…not a good thing for a sheriff. Nevertheless, the sheriff he was, and while there were guns in the trunk of the car, he was not known to carry one with him…and yet he was a highly successful sheriff. He just made his arrests without the use of a gun. Grandpa was a unique kind of a sheriff, but a very successful one indeed. He was well respected by everyone, including the Native Americans, who would even turn over their own wayward children, knowing that he would be fair, and they would avoid a life of crime. Hie time of service in the Rosebud County Sheriff’s Department was a career of which he was very proud, and so am I. Today is the 119th anniversary of Grandpa Andy Schulenberg’s birth. Happy birthday in Heaven, Grandpa. We love and miss you very much.
My sister-in-law, Rachel Schulenberg was born just three days after my husband and I were married. It seems strange that my sister-in-law was about the age of my own children, but then my husband’s family was spread out in years, and my brother-in-law, Ron was only seven years old when I married his brother. Rachel would have been 50 years old today, had not her life been cut short by a stroke on January 19, 2021. Rachel was a sweet Christian woman who loved the Lord and loved telling people about Jesus. She worked at a church in Powell for a number of years and was known to 
pray with anyone who needed prayer. She was a great servant of the Lord and loved by everyone who knew her.
Rachel was mom to three children, Cassie Franklin, Riley Birky, and Tucker Schulenberg, who was adopted by her husband, Ron Schulenberg (my brother-in-law), when he was 11 years old. She was a great mom, and her children were so very blessed. Rachel was also a grandmother to Lucas and Zoey and they were among her greatest treasures. Today she would also have Ryder and Alicen, as well as bonus grandson, Jace. Rachel would have loved having all these grandbabies. I wish she could have known the new ones and the future grandbabies. She would have loved having lots of grandbabies.
Rachel was only 45 years old when she passed away, so it’s coming up on five years now. I am always amazed at how fast the years following a loss just fly by. Before you know it, your loved one has been gone five, ten, fifteen years, and beyond, and with each passing year, you just continue to miss them. It is especially hard for 
the children of the one who has passed away. My heart aches for Cassie, Riley, and Tucker; and for the grandchildren too, especially Lucas and Zoey, who had the opportunity to know their grandma, and therefore to miss her very much. For them her loss is a heavy one. Today would have been Rachel’s 50th birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Rachel. We love and miss you very much.
My mother-in-law, Joann Schulenberg was a hard-working woman most of her life. It wasn’t necessarily that she did hard physical labor, but she always had busy hands. Having a garden vegetable garden all her life, she spent the harvest seasons canning vegetables to provide food for her family. She also canned meat whenever they raised a cow or purchased a side of beef. When she wasn’t canning, she was baking. Her house always had cake, cinnamon rolls, cookies, or some other such goodies for the snacking pleasure of her family. If you didn’t get your “sugar fix” you had only yourself to blame. Of course, that wasn’t always a good thing, because it was easy to overindulge on those fattening treats. Nevertheless, they were delicious, and always homemade. She was one to begin making dinner right after lunch, or sometimes even before. She was an excellent cook, and if you were a “meat and potatoes” kind of person, you were sure to get your fill.
When she wasn’t canning, baking, or cooking, my mother-in-law kept busy sewing, knitting, or crocheting. She made a living sewing clothing for a number of people, including my uncle, Jack McDaniels’ mom, for whom she sewed for a number of years. I only knew about that connection when I announced my engagement to my husband, Bob Schulenberg. My mother-in-law crocheted many afghans, that she sold at craft fairs and then received numerous orders for more. Those craft fairs left her with months of jobs and many referrals. One of 
my favorite items that my mother-in-law made was the “sweaters” she knitted. I use the word sweater lightly, because the ones she made were of a heavy yarn and equipped with a zipper, making them a coat. We all had one, and trust me, you didn’t need a coat.
Even after my mother-in-law developed Alzheimer’s Disease, she didn’t slow down. Yes, there were some things that went by the wayside. Things like finding store-bought cookies in the house, and less jar canned food, meaning that there were more store-bought canned foods in the house. She just couldn’t do those things so much anymore. We missed those things, but there was no help for it. Nevertheless, her crocheting remained. She had long been able to crochet “in her sleep” and never miss a stitch. That always amazed me, but when she had to be moved to a nursing home, because she required 24-hour care, she still crocheted. Of course, she didn’t use yarn at this stage, but she knew that her hands should be busy, so she would simply “crochet” with her oxygen tubing. The staff had no idea what she was doing, but after all those years, I knew what she was doing. When she would forget to hang on to her walker, because she was “fiddling” with her oxygen tubing, the concerned staff would panic, because they couldn’t get her to hang on. Upon seeing it in action, I simply asked her if I could hold her crocheting while she walked, all she said to me was, “Don’t lose a stitch!!” Once I “held her crocheting,” she would take hold of her walker, and proceed down the hallway…to the utter amazement of 
the staff. Of course, eventually the use of the walker went by the wayside, because she just couldn’t grasp the use of it anymore. That was sad, but she was perfectly content in her recliner wheelchair, because she never liked walking anyway. While her legs were no longer in use, her hands remained busy until the day she passed away. Today would have been my mother-in-law’s 94th birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Mom. We love and miss you very much.
While I didn’t see her in person very often, my cousin Liz Byer was a bright light shining from Facebook into the lives of those privileged enough to call her friend. She loved flowers, making Spring and Summer her seasons of choice, but she actually received a gift from Jesus on December 27th, when some of her outdoor flowers decided to be “blooming idiots” by blooming in the Winter. Leave it to Liz to come up with that. The reality is that she often came up with funny things. That was a big part of her charm. She would post things like “All of my flabbers are gasted” or show a picture of the birds at her “cat food bistro.” You really had no choice but to laugh at the stuff she found to brighten the day of anyone who followed her page. I would often go look at her page just to start my day with a smile. Oh…how I will miss those silly little posts. 
Liz was born with Brittle Bone Disease, but she never let that get her down. She always wore a smile and always had a kind word or a funny quip to lift the spirits of those around her. You may not have even been feeling down, but after you talked to Liz or read her posts, you knew that your day got just a little bit brighter. She had a way of making your day better, even when you didn’t know you needed that. That is a person who is a bright light. That was Liz.
Liz’s top priority, after the Lord, was her family. She was married to my cousin Tim Byer on July 12, 1986. I’m sure that one of the things Tim noticed first about Liz, was her winning smile. You could just see the joy in her heart through her smile. Their marriage brought them two sweet daughters, Danielle Elizabeth and Nickole Marie, and when the girls married, they added James Forseen and Caleb Holscher. Liz and Tim now have six beautiful grandchildren, Natasha Elizabeth, Eleanor Mercedes, Joanna Carlyne, and Henry Axel Forseen; and James Timothy and Judah Everett 
Holscher. They are her pride and joy. Together, Liz and Tim started a beautiful family, and their family will continue on long into the future. While her home going will bring sadness to the family, they know that because she had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, she is not in their past now, but rather in their future. They will see her again when they all join her in Heaven with the Lord. We will all miss Liz very much. Liz, we love you and look forward to seeing you again when we go to Heaven too.
My uncle, Bill Beadle, spent much of his working life in the pipe yards. Later, he owned his own rathole drilling business with his sons, Forrest and Steve, by his side. While Uncle Bill was a great machinist and an all-around mechanic, he truly loved fishing and bird hunting in the Worland area with his son, Steve the best. I am certain that is also why Uncle Bill was so content, in his later years, to live with Steve, his wife, Wanda, and their family. I can imagine they spent a lot of time discussing their fishing trips and their time walking the fields hunting for pheasants and chukars. Uncle Bill enjoyed hunting them because it was so exciting to walk the fields, waiting for that unexpected bird to fly up out of nowhere. The hunter had only seconds to react and would succeed only if he was truly skilled. Uncle Bill was truly skilled.
Uncle Bill Beadle was a unique individual. He had a deep love for all things western, and particularly the Old West. It is possible that he even felt he should have been living in the era. It is not that God made a mistake by placing him in the wrong time, but sometimes our personal preferences make us feel as though we might have been better suited to a different era. His family would have disagreed with him, had he suggested that he should have lived in the Old West…mostly because we wouldn’t have wanted him not to be with us. For Uncle Bill, it was not about living in the Old West, but about his love for Wyoming, which he truly did. Nevertheless, he was a cowboy at heart and would have loved to spend time in the Old West, even if it had only been a short time…like “Back to the Future!!” 
Uncle Bill was always entertaining and humorous, and I enjoyed visiting with him. When his memory began to decline, Uncle Bill could no longer attend family gatherings, and as many elderly people, he struggled to communicate with family members, and it became easier for him to stay home rather than attempt to engage in conversations. I truly miss those times with Uncle Bill. Today would have been Uncle Bill’s 96th birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Uncle Bill. We love and miss you very much.
Over the years I have been called many names by my grandchildren. Names like grandma, gma, granny, graham cracker, gram, and one of the most common…the shortest name, G. So, it really stands to reason that some of my great grandchildren should call me GG. And it is a name I love because it’s endearing, but also because it reminds me of the original GG…my mom, Collene Spencer.
Mom got her cute little moniker from my grandniece, Aleesia Spethman. They were best pals, and Aleesia loved her GG. Whenever she came over to the house, she would call out, “GG!!” It was as much to call for her GG, as it was to announce that she had arrived to see GG. She spent as much time on GG’s lap when they were together, as she did on anyone else’s lap. They were best friends, and they loved spending time together. Mom always loved being a grandmother and considered it one of life’s greatest blessings. She was a great mom, and always kept our life light and happy, even if she had to act a little bit crazy to make us laugh. Being a mom was all she ever wanted to do, but being a grandmother topped being a mom…mostly because she considered grandchildren as the blessing that came from motherhood. So great grandma, was an even bigger blessing, because it was the blessing that came from the blessing that was motherhood and grandmotherhood. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Mom loved being GG. It made her feel special. Before my mom, I never heard anyone called GG, which of 
course stands for great grandma. I’m not sure how Aleesia came to call her that, but she called her GG from the time she could talk. I have always loved that Mom was called GG, and I consider it an honor to be called the same thing. She was the original GG, and it is quite a title to live up to. I don’t know if I will ever be as great a GG as she was, but I will gladly spend the rest of my life trying to be. Today would have been my mom’s 89th birthday. Happy birthday Mom in Heaven, Mom. Have a great Heavenly birthday party. We love and miss you very much, and we can’t wait until we meet again.
Looking back on the years of my life, or more specifically the Christmases of my life. I know that I have been very blessed. The years have changed the look of our Christmas, but not the joy. With the addition of now, great grandchildren, we have new little faces on with to see joy, and we also still have the faces of the grandchildren and the children to enjoy. Just knowing that we have brought them some Christmas cheer makes me feel so blessed.
Some years have found us with some people in the family missing. Some have moved and some had to work. It 
makes for a different kind of Christmas, but you still feel blessed that they are in your life, and that the next year will likely be different. Then, you consider those who have family serving our country far away and overseas, and you reconsider your situation in light of theirs. And you feel grateful for their service, and the sacrifice their families made so that this country can remain free.
And then, there are the family members who have left us for Heaven. Those are the changes that hurt the most. The ones that can’t be reversed. Of those we just have the memories of Christmas past, when times were different, and there were no empty seats. I think the empty seats are the hardest part, whether it’s people who have left us or those who have moved. Missing them just doesn’t stop, no matter how many years have 
gone by. Now they spend Christmas with Jesus, the one for whom we celebrate Christmas. I can’t think of a better way to spend Christmas than with Jesus himself. And I can only imagine the party!! Someday we will all see for ourselves. Until then, our memories and Christmas changes will continue to accumulate. Merry Christmas everyone. May your day be sweet and blessed, no matter where your loved ones are. And thank you to all who are serving our country far from home.
When you lose a parent, it seems like time stops; and for them, I guess it does…at least on the earth, but in reality…and for the rest of us, time marches on. Of course, that means that very quickly we find ourselves wondering how it could possibly be that…in my case, my dad, Allen Spencer has been in Heaven for 17 years. My dad was the first of my parents, and of my husband’s parents to move to Heaven, so for me, it was like going into the unknown. To make matters worse, I was somehow under the impression that my dad would be around for the rest of my life. Yes, I know how that sounds, but the mind thinks its own thoughts, we don’t plan the thoughts the pop into our heads.
My sisters, Cheryl Masterson, Caryl Reed, Alena Stevens, and Allyn Hadlock, were blessed with amazing parents. They raised us in a loving Christian home. We were blessed with parents who taught is how to become respectable members of society, and also loving members of a family. When Dad went to Heaven, he knew that we would take care of Mom…and we did. It was not just a sense of duty to them both, but of love and respect for them both. I think it is the hope of all of our family 
members, now including grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren; that we have grown into people that would make our parents proud. They left us a legacy of love and caring, that we want to pass on to our own children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Dad’s legacy included so much more. He had served in the Army Air Forces, in World War II, stationed at Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England with the 8th Air Force 385th Bomber Group. He served with honor and dignity, and we have always been proud his service. He was a valued member of his crew, serving as the top turret gunner and flight engineer, and he saved his plane and crew from crashing when he hung out of the open bomb bay doors to manually lower the stuck landing gear as the ground rushed toward them. He was a hardworking man, working two or more jobs, if necessary, to support his family. That taught us a strong work ethic and a strong sense of giving, that we continue to carry with us today.
While 17 years have passed since our dad went to Heaven, we still want to do everything we can to continue to make his proud of the daughters he and Mom raised. We are all prayer warriors, and we pray over an ever-growing list of prayer requests from family and friends, which I think would have made our parents the proudest of the children they raised. We miss our parents so much and thinking about them on this the 17th anniversary of my dad’s homegoing, still makes us sad, but we know that we will see them again, when we are all reunited in Heaven. We love and miss you dad and mom, and we can’t wait to see you again one day.
Last Thursday brought the sad news that my aunt, Doris Spencer was leaving this earth. It was so hard to believe, mostly because she had lived her for a little over 100 years. So many people don’t get that opportunity, but Aunt Doris was very blessed. She had beaten the odds, to become a centenarian!! We were all so happy for her, and she was so happy. Her birthday celebration was such a wonderful event…worthy of her great accomplishment.
The reality is that her whole life was lived as a blessing. I will never forget when we visited her. She always made everything so special. It didn’t matter what time we arrived; she would get up and make a meal. She always felt that a guest should have something to eat, and she was a wonderful cook, so we didn’t argue with her philosophy. We had so many wonderful visits through the years. I specifically remember the time we got to go and pick blueberries. Then we had cereal with fresh blueberries on it. Oh, my goodness!! So good!!
Aunt Doris’ life was blessed with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Her family was the most important part of her life. She was blessed with long life and good health. For most of her years, she was able to get around largely on her own, even when she no longer drove, she could still maneuver and visit with family and friends. Aunt Doris liked people, and she enjoyed being with people. Now her life wasn’t perfect, and she has lost loved ones, but she knew she would see those who went before her, again, and now she is in Heaven with those who have gone before her.
Aunt Doris was the saving grace for my mother. When my mom, Collene Spencer and dad, Al Spencer got married and moved to Superior, Wisconsin, Aunt Doris and Uncle Bill rented the house behind their own to my 
parents. The girls became best friends, and mom, who had never been away from her family before, felt like it would all be ok. She and Aunt Doris had so many “escapades” together, and they wouldn’t have traded a single one for anything different. Now, the girls are back together again in Heaven, and I’m sure they are having a wonderful time. I’m sure Aunt Doris is having a great time with all of her family and friends who have gone before her. We will miss Aunt Doris so much. She lived a wonderful, long life, and she was a blessing to all of us. Aunt Doris, we love you so much, and we can’t wait to see you again.
