Ode to Adeline

Adeline Helene Ehrke Hertel

Adeline loved to read and enjoyed poetry.  In her older years her favorite little poem went like this:

A mule it has two legs before,
and two it has behind;
You tickle behind before you find
what the two behind be for

Her favorite toast was:

Here's to you as good as you are,
and here's to me as bad as I am;
but as good as you are,
and as bad as I am,
I'm as good as you are
as bad as I am


She had a wonderful sense of humor and had the best belly laugh you ever heard!

She loved the television show, "Perry Mason"  -- When that show came on everyone in the house had to be VERY QUIET!

"Grandma Turtle" in the newspaper

She was a "crackerjack" secretary and worked for the Draft Board until her retirement, after which she did quite a bit of baby sitting.

She was a very loving and giving person, and was always there ready to "give the shirt off her back."

John, Norma, & Adeline

I'm in my corner of my livingroom where I read, write, listen to music; trying to think how to write about my mother, Adeline Helen Ehrke Hertel.  There are so many facets to her life.  Mother was a business woman par excellent, she could spell any word given to her and was a bookkeeper to the end.  Adeline could never remember how old she was, but until the end she remembered her birth year 1894.  Then she looked at the newspaper for this year, 1989, subtracted in her head and would say, "I'm 95, NO! - boy I'm an old bugger!"  Adeline was 95 in body but never in spirit.  She brought happiness and joy where-ever she went.  The Eastern Star Home, where she lived the last month and a half, is for ladies only.  She kept the ladies laughing because she was always looking for some men- stating, "I used to be a sharp cookie, but now I'm a dumb cluck -- far from it, Adeline!  Her three favorite toasts were  1) A mule it has two legs behind and two it has before, you tickle beind before you find what the two behind ---be for !--  2)  Here's to you as good as you are and here's to me as bad as I am, but as good as you are and as bad as I am, I'm as good as you are as bad as I am.  It took me years to understand those.  3)  and #3 isn't any better---  Time makes ancient good uncouth.  What's uncouth?", she would always ask me.  It ain't couth," I would reply, and we would laugh.

Adeline & Ralph

Mother took my two daughters, Judy & Sally, on a bus tour of the west when she was 75, they were young teenagers.  She hurt her leg on a ride in Disneyland.  She took Judy & Sally to see the "Beatles" when they were in Cleveland.  She took my sons, Clark & David, at Thanksgiving to be with Jack, my brother, and his family in New York, usually by bus - she loved the bus.

Mother loved unconditionally.  She saw the flowers in people, never the weeds.  These later years when I saw her, she always greeted me with, "Here is my beloved daughter."  She hated my chewing gum - told me I would get short teeth; now that's something to think about.  I never knew anyone to leave my mother without feeling better about themselves.  My friends and Jack's friends were always welcome in our home.  We had some wonderful times at 3784 Delmore Rd.

Jack, Adeline, & Norma

Adeline was an avid reader.  I remember her coming home from work in the winter, taking the book she was reading, plunk down on the floor by the dinningroom heater with her hat and boots still on.  The house could have burned down around her when she was into a good book.  She loved opra and introduced me to my first.  Mother could cook a standing rib roast and a goose to a turn.

Adeline did not have an easy life, but she did her best with grace.  She was a lady to the nines and to the end.  Table manner were important to her.  We could never put a carton of milk or whatever on the table, it had to be in a pitcher.  Jack and I had to sit up straight and never use a toothpick even if offered.

Adeline, Lucie, & Eleanor

Mother believed in God - she never preached it, she lived it.  She knew her bible in English and German, but "at my age," she said, "I get to pick & choose the parts I want to read."

We had great times these last years going for rides to Middlefield to visit our amish friends, or Chagrin Falls for ice cream and popcorn balls, stopping for Bar BQ ribs to bring home to eat - mother loved ribs!

Like Paul in the Bible, there was a peace and contenment to her being.  She was happy in all circumstances.  When I was young she taught me a great truth - "Unto thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thow cans't not then be false to any man."

                                                                                                               Norma Lucia
                                                                                                               December 1989