Mrs. Tyler's Wedding Gift

Mrs. Tyler was one of Mae Hearn's best friends. She lived around the corner, north from #9 school. She was reputed to be a women who never stopped working. One of the many essential tasks of the farm housewife during the 1930's was to feed - abundantly and well - the men when they came in from the fields. Timing was essential in planning the meals. The hot food could not be taken off the stove until one caught sight of the men beginning to move in from the fields. While she waited by the window for the first sight of the men, Mrs. Tyler would stand and knit. Then, when the men appeared, she would put the knitting down and begin to transfer the hot food into bowls and on to the table. After Mae Hearn died, it was Mrs. Tyler that Lois turned to whenever she needed help with learning how to cook or can or to do any of the hundreds of other tasks which women performed. Here is the only picture we have of Mrs. Tyler. It was taken in 1920 at a St. Pauls Women's Institute meeting. With the white hair she looks much older than we would expect. Seventeen years later when Lois married Gordon, Mrs. Tyler gave Lois a quilt, every stitch of which Mrs. Tyler did herself. Now, 70 years later that quilt is displayed, preciously and never used, at the foot of the spool bed in the boys' room of Lois' house.