Violette Grace Egbert
Married Names: Violette Kuzara, Violette Townsend
June's Memories of her Mother: August, 1999
Violette was born October 24, 1904 in Valley, Nebraska. After her father, John Andrew Egbert was left alone to raise Violette and Paul, I think they lived in Exira, Iowa where her Aunt Olive, Emma, and Belle lived. She has happy memories of running between the houses of her grandmother and her aunts. "Violette's always singing," was how she described her jaunts. Then, I'm not sure why, John moved the children to Denver where Aunt Emma had moved and put them in an orphanage (a common enough practice, I think). She remembers the sadness of only being able to touch her brother Paul's hand through a wire fence.

George recalled that he never knew his own grandmother, May Harper, Vi's biological mother.  He said that almost nothing was known about her.  One day she disappeared, and Paul and Violette were placed in an orphanage.  This is the only known picture of May Harper on her wedding day to John Egbert in 1902.

 

Grandpa John worked as a shoe salesman (think Music Man) selling Buster Browns and traveling on the train. Violette remembers church and singing and being mostly happy, I think... of wanting to run and play with the boys, but always having her dresses in her way.
She loved her father very much. When she was 13 (Vi always said this, but I am beginning to think she was younger than this), he married her step-mother who was eighteen, and has very few pleasant memories of Verna (but what 13 year old has pleasant memories?). Zona was born during the first year after their marriage, and Vi felt like a mother to Zona. It is very sad, because the last time Zona visited my mother in Pinedale (3 years ago) she came to say good-bye. Zona had had a stroke and was aphasic, but could write, my mother could speak but couldn't see. Zona spent time living with my family on Star Mine Road and worked at the mine, dated guys in town, fell in love with a handsome athlete, but went back to St. Paul and married Bill DeWitt and had two boys. After the war, they visited Sheridan frequently, and I corresponded with her from time to time.
Verna (Vi's step-mother) was a wonderful musician, and played piano for silent movies in Sheridan. I believe she nurtured my mother's love of reading, as well as music. How wise a parent can an 18 year old be? And how resentful would a teen be to the person whom she saw as competition for her father's love? Verna's family, the Lancelots, sound wonderful and they enveloped Violette and Paul and enriched their lives, I'm sure.
Lisa's memories of her Grandmother.
Grandma Vi loved her grandchildren.  She always remembered our birthdays and Christmas.  She was always so glad to see us.  George told me that about the time he left for the Air Corps in 1942, at the height of WWII, Vi and his father Andrew were getting a divorce.  He never knew why.  Later, Vi remarried Don Townsend, who worked for the mines as an Engineer.  She always seemed happy and he was always very kind to everyone.
Grandma Vi loved to do handwork.  She sent me pillow cases and kitchen towels in which she had carefully embroidered.  She gave me a complete set of kitchen towels with all the days of the week.  I still have them and use them every day.  
I remember that she started getting blind from macular degeneration while I was still a child.  She found so many ways to cope with it.  She still worked on crafts and was always busy with new projects. As I'm typing this, I realize how much like my dad George that reminds me!!!  She never complained about being blind.  She had such an amazing attitude.  I remember staying in her guest room and it always smelled so fresh.  She loved her garden and was very proud of all the peonies and flowers that she grew every year.  You'd walk into her backyard and it was green everywhere!  Every time you'd visit her, she wanted to know about you.... about how you were and what you were doing.  She was always so attentive to your every need and loved to cook for us every time we visited.  Wow... again that so reminds me of my dad.  She had a heart of gold.
 

My last visit with Grandma, 1992.

 

When I last saw Grandma Vi, I was travelling with my husband through Wyoming, and into South Dakota to see my other grandmother.  So we stopped on our way through, and then a second time on our way back.  She was so glad to see me!  It was the same grandma in the same house, with the fresh clean sheets, a very neat house, a green backyard garden, and cooking dinner.  Don had passed many years earlier, and she had been living alone for a number of years.  But she had everything worked out.  She had neighbors who took care of her grocery shopping and going to the doctor since she couldn't drive.  She'd been legally blind for many years.  

 

As it happened, it was her last week in the house she had lived in for more than 30 years.  She was busy preparing to move into an assisted living apartment in nearby Pinedale.  Her daughter June had made the arrangements and was very involved in providing what care she could, even though she did not live in the same state.  She confided in me that she felt afraid and felt very sad about leaving her home behind.  Apparently the neighborhood had slowly disappeared around her.  From what she told me about her new life in Pinedale, she'd be able to make friends, and she would have a better level of care as she aged.  She was 88 years old!  She would have her own apartment and would have her favorite things around her.  I told her I believed she was doing the right thing---that I could only imagine how hard it must be for her to leave what she had loved, but that she would have the support she needed.  She would have friends and people right there for her.  What surprised me was that she confided in me, that she trusted me, and that my opinion mattered to her.  But I guess that's what family is really... people who always have your best interest at heart.  The only people who you can know without doubt, will always do what's right and good.

 

When we came back through to see her the second time on our way out, she was in the middle of a birthday party with her old friends.  They gave her one last party, even though it wasn't her birthday.  She was so proud of me and showed me off to her friends.  It was easy to tell that they loved her so much and that they were all going to miss her.

 

She was so brave.  She faced her uncertain future, at the age of 88, with courage I certainly hope to have if I reach her age.  I will always carry her brave, cheerful attitude with me for the rest of my days.  And you know what?  I am again reminded of my father who was so very brave in all his final days... so like his mother.  From what I heard later, Violette lived very well in Pinedale.  I heard that she was very happy there and well cared for.  She lived to be 95.  Wow.  Thank you Grandma for everything, but mostly for showing me what it's like to be near the end of your life, and to life so bravely, so courageously.  I love you Grandma.