Sometimes when I image what life has been like for my mother I am in total awe at the immensity of her life. She was always 2 steps ahead of the rest when it came to experiencing life to the fullest and yet she always seemed rather aloof and distant in regard to personal relationships. Of course when one considers herstory it is not hard to understand how she hardened her heart to such trivialities as relationships.Here was a woman that moved to California after she graduated from high school and while out west she tried to join the military. Unfortunately the Air Force had to eventually (honorably) discharge her from serving in the military, not for any overt reason on her part, but simply because she had the misfortune to wear a size 13 shoe. The military, at the time, was ill equipped to deal with special sizes especially for women recruits and thus Virginia was not able to be properly uniformed and therefore the military was left with no other choice but to discharge her from serving her country. Can you imagine? Discharged not for flat foot, but for big foot. Oh the humility.
So, military career nixed from the "bucket list" Virginia spent years doing radio and just living/loving the single life west of the Rockies. Years later heavy with child, she returned to Wisconsin but was not exactly welcomed back into the open arms of her stoic (German) father. Not only would he not accept her unwed pregnancy, but after the birth of her firstborn son he took to referring to him as "the bastard". Can you imagine? Living with such blatant disappoint and verbal abuse of a strong family patriarch?!
A weaker female would have took to the hills, denounced her faith and spent her years in bitter resentment. Not my mother, oh no Virginia would have none of the "poor me" syndrome we so often find ourselves gravitating towards. No instead Virginia took an office job to support her family and eventually she set her sights on Allouez most prominent bachelor, yes my father, and after a mere 4 months of courtship found herself accepting his marriage proposal. Since he had been a bachelor for all of his 36 years his family was dumbfounded by this turn of events. Needless to say the charms of Virginia wore down the resistance that Ambrose Mongin had spent a lifetime building.
Barely into his 37th year and a year after their first date they were married in a simple church wedding followed by a reception at her parent's home. By this time her father, Paul Priewe had taken to calling his grandson by his given name no longer using the label of the ignorant.
Well the rest of the story is destined for another post on my blog where I will attempt to disseminate the story of their marriage.
Let me leave you with one cliffhanger to dwell on; they had seven (7) children in their first (4) four years of marriage. Yes that is no typo; 7 in 4 without the aiding and abetting of a fertility clinic either.
7 in 4.
