Johanna "Oma" Brownell died.
(Ann's mom)
4 Nov 1925 - 20 Dec 2007
Many years, many places, many people ... and many, many stories.
Johanna Catharina Baars was born to Johannes and Jasperina (Schrader) Baars in Arnhem, Holland (Netherlands). Johanna was known as Annie by her 11 brothers and sisters, Tante Annie by her nephews and nieces, Moeke and Mom by her 9 children, and Oma by her grandchildren and other loved ones - but never as she. Oma didn't like to be discussed in 3rd person. (I tried to avoid using "she" here - but sorry, Oma it just doesn't sound right.)
As a child, Oma loved to swim and dive. She swam the Rhine River and was a competitive diver. When Oma was a teenager, World War II began. Her childhood home was down the street from the bridge in The Bridge Too Far (1974, Cornelius Ryan). Oma saw death and destruction in her hometown. Her brothers were sent to prison camps. Her family was forced from their home and they had to walk miles for shelter, taking only what they could carry (including small children). Some of Oma's childhood friends disappeared and Oma never saw them again.
Oma also saw love and compassion. Her family shared their food rations with other families. They made friends. They took care of each other. Miraculously, Oma's entire family survived the war. Oma spoke very fondly of all her brothers and sisters - using their nicknames and rarely using their birth names. As an adult, I realized that I only knew them by their nicknames. I had to call my uncle Joop to find out what the birth names were (in parentheses): Jahn (Johannes Mattias), Jasper, Henk (Hendrikus), Janna, Cory (Cornelius), Joop (Johannes Jacobus), Rully (Roelof), Zusje (Jasperina), Meinje (Wilhelmina), and Seinje (Gasiena).
After the war, Oma studied bookkeeping, language, and gourmet cooking. Oma married John F. Heuvelmans - who Oma insisted had the most majestic opera voice she had ever heard. They lived in Tilburg and had 5 daughters: Marion McLaughlin, Franca Bukowsky, Miriam Mowery, Monique Whitcomb, and Margaret Cleveland. In 1958, they moved from Holland to the United States on the Marshall Plan. They moved to the "Land of Opportunity" to get jobs and to provide for their small children. They worked hard, mastered English, and struggled.
Simply having 5 small children would be too much for me. Oma and John Heuvelmans had five small children, moved away from their families to a different country, learned a different language, and they had to take whatever jobs they could get to earn money. I am sure there were many moments when they wanted to give up. Oma would never have considered giving up. But, they struggled and Oma and John Heuvelmans were divorced.
Oma loved the United States though she would forever love and cherish Holland - her mother country. When Oma learned that she would have to give up her Dutch citizenship in order to become an American, she would not in a "million years." In Oma's mind and in all of her stories, Holland was anything and everything that was good.
Oma was remarried to Eugene B. Brownell and they had 3 sons and 1 daughter: John, Ann, Eugene, and Robert. They lived in a "swamp" in Black Creek and then on a "cliff" in Appleton (Oma's words). Finally, they moved to Neenah and lived in the Gilbert Home on Forest Avenue for over 25 years. My dad, Eugene B. Brownell, died in 1998.
Oma moved to Evanston, Illinois - first with us and then into the house next door. Oma helped us with the kids, with our laundry, with our meals. Oma loved to cook. She fed us, our friends, our neighbors, and she fed strangers who knocked at her door. Oma became well-known for her story-telling, her carrot cakes, her salads with fresh garlic, her pea soup, her matching knitted hats and scarves, and her exuberance. Oma exaggerated everything ... her expressions, her demonstrations, and her stories. She exaggerated - she said - "So they remember." We do, Oma. We'll never forget.
Oma moved back to Neenah, Wisconsin shortly before we came to Spain. On Wednesday, 20 Dec 2007, Oma died peacefully in her sleep.
Please keep Oma alive in your hearts and in your lives …
- Give cookies and root beer to children right before dinner.
- "Hide" candy in plain view for children to "find."
- Shop at 4 different grocery stores to save 2 cents a pound on grapes and 12 cents on a 5 lb bag of coffee.
- Talk to everyone you see at the grocery store and make comments about their purchases.
- Look at your receipts very, very carefully when you get home. Then go back to the store the next day to return items for which the price on the receipt does not match the advertised sale price. Sheesh!
- Buy Easter candy in June at 75% off and then give it away for Halloween.
- Buy meat in bulk when it is on sale, break it down into smaller portions, and freeze it. In three months, throw it away.
- Listen to Heintje over and over and over. Sing with him. Tell everyone how Heintje professed his love to his mother in his songs.
- Never tell a joke the same way twice. (José, can you see?)
- Exaggerate your stories and expressions to "get the point across." Sheesh!
- Make carrot cake with carrots, flour, and anything else you can find in the refrigerator and cupboards.
- Always cook ten times more food than you need.
- Spend 2 hours cutting all the fat off a slab of meat that you are cooking for dinner one day. The next day, stop and pick up some original Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sheesh!
- Make liver pâté with bacon ... and make it so absolutely delectable that vegetarians come from miles away to eat it.
- Boil pork chops in 2 cups of butter for several hours. The pork chops will melt in your mouth.
- If your cupboards are so full that you cannot find what you are looking for, buy more.
- Wash the kitchen towel after using it once.
- Use 1/2 of a bottle of fabric softener when doing the wash. You will not be able to dry off with a towel after a shower and your clothes will repel rain. Sheesh, but everything smells good and feels so soft.
- Iron everything - even underwear.
- When you fold pants - line up the seams. (Apparently, pants that are not purchased at Target are made such that the seams line up.)
- Attribute the invention of everything to Holland or at least to a person of Dutch descent.
- Read the newspaper - every day, every word.
- When driving, do not lean back and relax. Lean forward. If you see another car, slam on the brakes, gasp loudly, and secure your front-seat passenger with your forearm.
- Tell your troubles to your dog. Dogs never betray your trust.
- Buy gourmet birdseed mix. Ask someone to help you fill the bird feeder every other day. Watch the birds and squirrels through the windows. They, like people, have unique personalities and mannerisms.
- Never ever say NO - not even to strangers who knock at your door at 11 pm asking for $ to fix their car or to buy diapers.
- Quickly and easily forget all of your children's and grandchildren's transgressions and exaggerate all of their minor successes. If there are no recent successes, recycle stories of past successes or near-successes.
- Give $100 to Salvation Army every Christmas and generous gifts to the people who deliver the mail and the newspaper.
More pictures of Oma (and more to come from my sibs):
This year, when packing for Spain, we brought one grocery bag of our Christmas favorites (that would fit in the bag). On the eve of Saint Nicholas, we got them out ... Santa's clothesline that Andreia and Bronson made, a stained glass Christmas tree from Franca; a Christmas tablecloth from Oma, our Christmas Almanac from Monique, Jan Brett's Christmas Treasury from Margarita, snowman towels from Betty, Three Trees from Dena, dancing snowman from Oma, 3D glasses from Susan, Haitian nativity set from Amy, jingle bells from Franca, Santa Bunny, and rock-n-roll Santa. Wow! A lot of great memories fit in that bag.
