JohnCr8on’s Snapshots

Ada's Hoosier

I never knew and to my knowledge never met Ada Wederski.  My first memory of hearing Ada’s name was the day Joni told me of her death.  It was 1987.  I was in London attending summer school.  Standing in the hallway of a school dorm, I tried as best I could to listen on the payphone as Joni, fighting back tears, told me the news.

Ada was one of the special people in Joni’s life.  Ada and her husband Lee lived across a dirt road from the Mickey’s in Blakeman, a few miles west of Atwood.  She and Lee were one of just a few neighbors within reasonable walking distance.

A visit to Ada’s meant that Joni could do all the things she wasn’t allowed to do or simply weren’t possible in her own home.  She and Ada kicked back on the sofa to watch soap operas.  Joni drank strawberry soda and ate Swanson’s pot pies – true luxuries in the eyes of a young girl.  And, for an hour or two, she could be an only child not having to share attention with two sisters.

Ada and Lee lived in a simple home.  Two rooms and a kitchen.  There was running water in the sink but there wasn’t an indoor bathroom.  Ada wore a plain house dress each day to do her daily chores as well as to lounge in between.  She often kept her teeth in a glass by the sink.  On the rare occasions that Joni smells denture cream, it brings back memories of being near Ada.

Ada and Lee worked hard.  They grew, harvested and canned their own produce.  Ada kneaded dough for bread on the Hoosier that stands in our kitchen today.  It’s easy to see from the worn area were so much work was done.  Lee raised chickens and pigs.

Ada and Lee were not wealthy by any measure save one.  They had unlimited love to share with young neighbors.  This love was shared without condition whenever the girls ran across the road conveying a lifetime lesson of how special it is when one opens their home to another.

Joni visited often after school, on weekend and summer afternoons – as soon as the chores at home were done.  The visits included activities of no particular note.  Joni would help Ada in the garden and kitchen.  She would follow Lee in the yard and do what she could to help with the chickens and pigs.  If she returned home on any particular day and was asked, “What did you do at Ada’s?”  “Nothing much,” would be just about accurate.

Grand activities aren’t what Joni needed when she went to Ada’s.  It was many days of doing “nothing” in the garden, in the kitchen, on the worn out sofa watching TV that forged a lasting bond between a neighbor and a girl.  It is a relationship that will be cherished for at least another generation and is celebrated in the name of our youngest daughter.