BERTHA AMELIA WURTH
Bertha Wurth Noland.
Bertha Amelia Wurth was my grandmother. We knew her respectfully as Grandmother or Grandmother Bertha and affectionately as Grandma Babe. The Babe name came along well before I did and originated based on the fact she was the baby (youngest) of her generation.
She and my grandfather grew up and met in the Leeds area of Kansas City. Presently, there is not much of a neighborhood there, but in the early 1900s it was a very strong neighborhood. Early on, they made a pact that they would never smoke or drink and to my knowledge neither deviated from that pledge.
If you asked me to describe my grandmother, I would have to say simply that she was a rock - proud and strong willed, very conscious of what she was doing, insistent that things be done right and satisfied with her life. On the back of the picture on this page she wrote the following: "I'm afraid I'm a little overly proud, but try not to be disgustingly so!".
Although she was not born in Switzerland, I think she was very Swiss. While she did not smoke or drink, she did like her hot dogs and to eat peanut butter from the jar. Her most important activity was her church and her attitudes were based on her strong religious beliefs.
Grandmother Bertha is the only of my grandparents that I knew as an adult. My Granddaddy Noland died when I was but 7 years old. Due to my parent's divorce and my attendance in college, after my childhood, I never saw my father's father and saw my father's mother only once. But, the grandparent I did get to know I admired greatly and miss greatly.
My grandmother had two daughters, my mother and my aunt. Luckily, she lived long enough to become a great-great-grandmother several times over. For me she was just a great (no hyphen) grandmother.
Obviously, there is a lot more to be said.