Burial of Grandma McGahan

Can you imagine the stout heart of the pioneers who made homes in a place as desolate as this? The picture above is the cemetery outside of Elsie, NE in the Nebraska panhandle. And this is 160 years after this place was settled! What a different world it was when bravery and toil were the qualities which rewarded men and women with a small amount of success.

Grandma McGahan, Bill's father's mother, was laid to rest here last Saturday Nov. 22. In some respects, no one knows of her successes, for they were probably the inner personal achievements of a strong farm wife and mother of 5, who lived a life of sacrifiece and hard work, taking joy in the simplest of things. Her second boy was born severely autistic, though that word was unknown back then. Refusing to put him in an institution, as recommended by the doctors, she and the family cared for Uncle John, who remained a grown-up toddler his whole life. I guess I mention that first because that was what struck me the most about her simply faithful life...just her unwavering care for her son in spite of his great disability. She seemed always to be the most patient person.

But she was also one of those people who asked a lot of questions, always listening carefully for your answer and coming forth with a most sensible response, always. She was an avid gardner, who could keep alive even plants which were even unsuited for her garden zone, if she had a mind to help them survive and appreciated their beauty enough. She once brought a tender agapanthas plant from California where she visited us once, and transplanted it next to her house, in a garden blooming with rosebushes and irises, and it was thriving ever after. Who knows how she did that?

Bill also tells how she killed a badger with a fencepost. And he saw her kill a rattle snake with a shovel one summer when he and his siblings were staying out there at the farm. One tough cookie, Grandma Mildred.

A good woman through and through, she ended up with 20 great grandchildren (I think that's right), 10 grandchildren and always had a story to tell them about life on the farm in western NE. She's lived through epic blizzards in a house with no heat or indoor plumbing, in fact she raised her kids there. She taught grade school in town (North Platte) so that her kids could attend Catholic School there. Education was always important to her and her husband Bill, who passed before her in 1997. He was a good man, too. salt of the earth, with a story for everyone, and a sureshot with a shotgun. He was called Pop, after his favorite drink, farmed the homestead as his father before him out in Elsie, where the dirt isn't much better than sand (this was dustbowl territory in the 30s). What a matriarch! Mildred McGahan was buried in the cemetary pictured above, next to her husband William, and son John.

May she enjoy the face of God!