Hi everyone,
Many of you know that Dad writes a farming-related column for the Pope County Tribune. This week's column is about mom and their life together, so I thought I'd share it here for those of you who don't get the paper. Nice tribute to a wonderful lady and great marriage partnership, Dad!

REMEMBERING A CITY GIRL TURNED FARM WIFE

My wife Aileen of 52 1/2 years recently passed away after a 6 year struggle with dementia.  It has been a difficult time for our family, especially with 4 young grandchildren, the youngest of whom probably have a hard time understanding why grandma does not interact with them like she used to when they were younger.

Aileen and I both grew up in or around Starbuck.  She was the daughter of Oliver Kyvig, who had a career at the First National Bank of Starbuck, working with Ed and Tommy Olson.

Aileen’s mom, Myrtle, was a career nurse, who had jobs like running the former Minnewaska Hospital, and later worked at the Starbuck Clinic for Drs. Bucher and Zempel until she retired.  She and Aileen were both 50-year members of the Starbuck Study Club.

In high school we pretty much ignored each other; she was from town, I was from the country.  She went to all 12 years of grade and high school, while I went 8 years to the country school district #95, then 4 years of Starbuck High School.  We both graduated from the 1956 class.

What was unique about our class was that 10 kids out of the 35 eventually paired off and got married!  I think Aileen and I were the last of those 5 couples.  We got married on the weekend of our class’s tenth reunion, and obviously missed out on that one.

It was a chance meeting at the Star Lanes in Starbuck that changed our lives forever after.  During Thanksgiving vacation, Aileen came to the bowling alley with her brother Bob, 7 years younger, and I came there with my sister Ruthe, 6 years younger.  By that time, Aileen had her elementary teaching degree from Concordia College, Moorhead, and I had my 2 year diploma from the University of Minnesota St. Paul School of Agriculture.  

It seemed to be instant attraction; we had both dated other people, but the time was ripe since we were approaching 30 years of age.  We were married the next summer—between first and second-crop alfalfa harvest, of course.

In 1967 we bought the 200 acre farm, all the livestock, machinery and other farming supplies from my parents for $38,000.  It was a functioning dairy and hog farm at the time.  My parents had in 1960 purchased an 80-acre farm 3 miles to the northwest for the tidy price of $112 per acre, and they moved to that farm when we took over the home farm.  

The house my 3 siblings and I had grown up in was built around the turn of the century, but it needed remodeling to suit a young couple who would go on to have 3 kids.

We had a well-known local carpenter, Thorlief Landaas, come out to look at the old farmhouse to determine how to proceed.  After poking with his pen knife into the beams of the cellar (where my mom stored the potatoes and all the canning), he said “Tear it down.”

By the winter of 1968-69 (a tough winter) we moved into our new $18,000 house.  Of course, we did not have that kind of money laying around, so my parents had to co-sign the loan for the house.  They must have had a lot of faith in this young couple.

The payments on the $38,000 farm purchase was paid on a twice-a-month deduction off the milk check.  I think milk was around $3.00 per hundredweight at the time.  As time went on, the price of milk went to $5, then to $10 and higher, so the original monthly payments to my parents became a lower and lower percent of the total gross from the milk.

Eventually we were able to buy my parents’ other property—reduced to 70 acres by then since they sold off the farmstead to someone else.  The price for the 70 acres was $500 per acre, so I would imagine dad had to pay some capital gains tax from the original purchase of 1960!

Prior to our marriage, Aileen taught elementary school in Columbia Heights, MN.  After we got married, she was not going to be teaching there any more.  Someone organized a going-away party from Columbia Heights, and she recalled that the principal sent her off with the remark: “Here’s to the gal who’s going to greener pastures!”

After moving to the farm, Aileen taught one year in Glenwood Elementary, then we began our family of 3.  She was a stay-a-home mom until the kids were all in school in Starbuck.  Then she began substitute teaching in the elementary school, which continued until around 1991 when the Starbuck, Glenwood and Villard schools consolidated to form the Minnewaska Area High School.

Many times Aileen’s alarm would ring at 6:00 a.m.  She became a very dependable substitute, rarely turning down a chance to do what she was born to do.  The teachers all loved that she could pick up and teach from their lesson plan rather than simply “babysitting” the class.

Aileen’s primary hobbies throughout her whole life until around 2012 were knitting and sewing.  She made lots of clothes for the kids, and created many cute sweaters and blankets for family members and to give as gifts.

She was also a terrific cook.  Nobody could make Krazy Kake like she could!

Aileen was also the motivation for my writing these columns since 2005.  An ad in the Pope County Tribune for a farming-related column contributor led her to urge me to apply, and the rest is history.

Rest in peace, Aileen.  You will be missed.