Reflections of my great grandmother, Rosina

I spent my early years in a small house directly behind “Great Grandma” Neukom’s house on Penn Street in Decatur, Indiana.

I lived there from from the age of 1 to 8 years of age.

I remember Grandma Neukom had a huge garden that she seemed to tend daily while wearing either an old fashioned bonnet or straw hat.   She was a small feisty old woman to me and didn’t seem to show affection towards many people.

My father (Charles) said he had helped build her house when Christian, her husband died. It was a small bungalow-type house with a small basement loaded with canned fruits and vegetables. It was always immaculate and Grandma Neukom was especially proud of her flowers and garden.  She allowed me to go down there occasionally.  All I remember is jar after jar of sauerkraut.

It always seemed to me that she was mean-spirited towards my grandmother (her daughter, Edna). As a young boy I didn’t realize she did this to perhaps make her blind daughter stronger and more self-reliant. I remember very vividly the wire strung between her house and Edna’s so that her blind daughter might travel the distance between houses more easily, and her yelling at her daughter if she stumbled or got off path.

Grandma Neukom spoke in a heavily accented German voice. She died on the 9th of June 1973 (the day my brother, Chuck, got married) after living her final years in the care of her daughter, Edna........the independent, blind one.