I recently attended the life celebration of an aunt who had lived to within 6 weeks of her 100th birthday. Aunt Ruth at one time was bound and determined, her daughter told me, to reach 100; but after her 105 year old husband, Brick, died she rapidly lost interest in goals involving this life. The celebration of their lives was organized by my cousins, Ruth and Brick’s daughters, in the small California town near where their parents had farmed. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather. A gathering at the farm after the celebration service allowed widely scattered family members to reconnect and establish new relationships.

During the church celebration I was able to present a few thoughts on my Aunt Ruth’s life. (And because Aunt Ruth’s journey took her from Winkler, Manitoba to California, I have included this post under the heading: Out Of Winkler.)

This first picture is a picture of Aunt Ruth and her youngest brother, Reuben, my father. This was taken in 2003, at the memorial of their older brother, Harry. Both Ruth and Reuben look very happy.

This second picture is an aerial picture of the farm in southern Manitoba where Ruth spent 10 years of her childhood. It is also the farm where my father was born, and where I was born as well!! Many family connections are associated with this farm.

If you look pretty much in the middle of the photo, leading down past the barn, is a pasture. At a Voth family reunion in 2000, as participants gathered on the yard of this farm, Ruth told the story that when she was young, she used to walk across this pasture to visit her cousin Alma, who lived with her parents on an adjoining farm yard. Alma and Ruth were friends throughout life, even though their adult lives found them thousands of miles apart.

This third photo is one taken of Ruth, Reuben, and their parents standing next to a car. A few years ago, on a visit to California, I asked Aunt Ruth to tell me the story behind this picture. She told me she had finished one year at Tabor College (a Mennonite Brethren college) in Hillsboro, Kansas, receiving her teachers certificate, and was returning to Hillsboro to teach school. This job was at a rural, one-room school about five miles outside Hillsboro. “That year was a disaster,” Ruth told me. “I couldn’t control those boys.”

Following that year she got on a train and headed to California where her two older brothers had previously settled. She spent some time as a nannie and housekeeper for several families before meeting Lawrence “Brick” Schneider and settling down to married life on a farm south of Sacramento.

The rest of her story you will hear from others, who know the California part of her story better than myself. Growing up it was always rather a mystery to me that I had these uncles, aunts and cousins in California. My parents, grandparents and myself did take one car-trip to California in 1952, when I was four years old. I have some dim memories of visiting these cousins on their farm. Other than that, I was an adult before I really got to know this part of my family. I loved my Aunt Ruth and greatly enjoyed the times I was able to visit here. She was articulate and sharp, opinionated, yes, argumentative, yes, but loving her extended family