Life on Board the Twentieth Century Express, Ltd.

In going through my mother's papers, there was a manila envelope that I hadn't looked in until now. My jaw hit the floor when I realized that it was a third, unpublished memoir by my Aunt Mildred! Dedicated to her "Twenty-First Century Family," it's yet another collection of family stories.

The Three Sisters
Charlotte Hovick Lohman, Mildred Hovick Monge, Signe Hovick Christeson

In the final years of her life, my parents and I would drive down to visit her in Northfield, Minnesota as often as we could. On one particular visit, I so clearly remember her saying, "I picked the most wonderful time to be alive! When I think that our Papa was born in a two-room, dirt-floored cottage... and now, just look at all the progress that I have seen!"

In 1974, in her first memoir, Remember she wrote, "These were the real Horse and Buggy Days we lived in, and for us to have seen these days develop into the Space Age of our retirement years makes us thankful to have been born during this century of progress; the most momentous 50 years of mankind."

That drive to capture the wonders - big and small - that she had seen over her long, well-lived life, resulted in two memoirs that I knew of, Remember and Niblits and Bits. But it turns out that that drive kept her writing into her nineties. Remarkable.

At the age of 93, she closes this collection with this:

After reading this, my hope is that your faith has become stronger, 
your love even deeper, so you can sing with the Psalmist--

'Lord, fill us each morning with your constant love, 
so that we may sing and be glad all our life.

June 20, 2000  11:00 A.M.

Finis

But two years later, at the age of 95, she adds a final page:

Psalm 127:3
"Children are a gift from the Lord. They are a real blessing."

Psalm 128:6
"May you live to see your grandchildren." 
A special gift to me as I also see many great-grandchildren.

Final Finis -- June 25, 2002

Mim passed away on 16 November 2003. Mim, your Twenty-First Century family thanks you!

Life on Board the Twentieth Century Express, Ltd.
(click to download)

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