1958: Ivan & Perú

This opening photo could explain why Dad was the only one of our family who attended Grandma Hoyt's funeral in early December. Mother was eight months pregnant at the time. A month earlier, Uncle Phil had taken my parents and Grandma Hirschy for a ride to Elwood to show them the way to Mary Evans Hospital. It was important to know the best roads and be prepared for any eventuality. The area is very hilly, there are so many curves, and the weather is unpredictable in the middle of winter. Ivan Wayne Hoyt arrived safely January 5, 1958. 

   

Aldo, Lynn, Rita

We three siblings waited eagerly to hear the news. Each time Mother gave birth I hoped for a sister. But, again this time, it was not to be. We loved watching our new baby brother grow and change.

We enjoyed those months shared with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. A few of the other relatives came and went from the other missionary fields. 
 

 

                                                                       

Winter turned into spring, then summer. The adventure of a school year in the US ended. I look back at my first impressions in the classroom. "Everyone speaks English," I thought. It was all so strange and quite an adjustment. I was socially awkward and didn't fit in. My courses, on the other hand, were not difficult. I was surprised to find that school could even be fun.  

Piano lessons continued throughout that year with an elderly teacher. I remember she wanted me to master a composition by Claude Debussy.

My parents kept busy with mission-related responsibilities--visiting churches, writing articles for the Brethren Missionary Herald, in addition to the building project for my grandparents and speaking in their church on occasion. 

We enjoyed family outings, like this picnic roasting hot dogs by a lovely pond.

Then it was time to return to Argentina. According to a note in the denominational magazine (8.02.58), our fellow missionaries the Schrocks were already on the high seas in July. However, the Hoyts´ promised passage had been cancelled and were awaiting their time to travel.

The following issue (8.09.58) mentioned our departure August 7 and that we traveled via Latin American Airlines. 

Another news item appeared in the August 30th publication:

I knew about our stop in Peru to visit the de Rossets but did not remember my father's back difficulty. More than once in his lifetime he was laid up with back trouble.

The de Rosset family

Obviously my missionary aunt and uncle, who were our neighbors that whole year in Evans City, had returned earlier to their place of service in Trujillo, Peru. Their two oldest, Eddie and Karin, stayed behind to continue their education in the US. 

 It was such a privilege to visit them and learn about their work and surroundings. The eight-hour taxi ride north from Lima, the capital, to Trujillo, was the scariest I can recall. The winding narrow highway hugged the coast between a serious drop to the ocean on the left and a steep sandy mountainside on the right. The experienced drivers were not afraid to speed.

Although I was too young to appreciate the lengths to which these dear relatives went to entertain us, I do remember Aunt Joyce's pies, and Uncle Ed's generosity. 

The following photos tell of the sight-seeing outings. All these sites were in their area. The Huacas (shrines or temples) of the Moche peoples from nearly two thousand years ago, are enormous adobe brick structures. They have since become sophisticated tourist destinations, highly commercialized.

Huaca del sol

Huaca de la luna

Joyce & Kathryn in forefront

Rosie and Rita in back

Ed at Huanchaco

Huanchaco has become a popular beach city. 

Salaverry, the gateway to Trujillo, is the great multipurpose port of Northern Peru. In addition to all the historic and archeological sites in the area, the natural attractions are a big draw--great beaches and opportunities to surf, fish, sandboard, and more.

Uncle Ed and Aunt Joyce tried to start a church there. Mostly they worked in Trujillo, Peru's second largest city. The following photo is of the church front and on the left you can see the Christian bookstore.

La librería y la iglesia en la Avda. La Unión

Trujillo is now a very modern city. These are glimpses into life sixty or seventy years ago.

Callejón típico

Cousin Karin says this may be the narrow corridor near the church where her best friend Natalia lived at the end in a two-room adobe hut. She also recalls the burros that carried fresh milk they bought.

This was market street. Uncle Ed did all the shopping because he was a better bargainer. 

En el mercado: Freddy, Lynn y el tío Ed

This photo brings back the memory of Uncle Ed's generosity. He heard me hint that I wanted to take back souvenirs for my friends, and he immediatly bought an assortment for me.

I asked cousin Rosie to write a summary of her parents' ministry in Peru. She sent me a piece she wrote a few years ago after her parents moved out of the Evans City family homestead, where they resided after retirement. The painful task of dealing with the accumulations of several generations, had fallen to her. Here is an excerpt.

I found letters from my father back to the 30’s, chronicling his meeting my mother and their missionary career.  In 1944, during WWII they went out by boat from Texas to Peru on $60 a month support without the language which they learned by walking around and listening to people talk.  They arrived in the port city of Callao with almost nothing and went by bus to the coastal city of Trujillo, Peru.  It was a hard and lonely beginning.

I read about how my mother at first felt forsaken of God as they lived in two rooms in a rat-infested primitive hotel with unsavory toilet facilities down the hall.

I read about her longing for trees and home then about her first Peruvian friends and her love for them and the beginnings of a church in a ramshackle fishing village, about my father’s discouragement over theft (he used to have the windshield wipers stolen off his Model T Ford, a car that had to be cranked and had no back doors so he just told us to sit in the middle).

And so many times I read about his clinging to I Peter 5:7  “casting all your care upon him for he careth for you.”  

And I read about how they began to plant churches and finally in the 80’s founded a seminary which flourishes today.

My mother, who never took no for an answer, taught hundreds of people to read and women how to care for their children. She used every resource she had and even taught many people to play the piano on a cardboard keyboard, and they could play when they hit the real thing. 

They lasted through sorrow, loss and joy for 42 years. It is a story of ordinary people to whom God was faithful; they clung to Him, and He was with them, performing His good work.

I conclude with Rosie's opening paragraph to her reflections and the scripture which expresses my thoughts also as I look back on my parents' ministry:

As I sat in the middle of both the documents of my teaching life at Moody Bible Institute and the records of my history at home, I came back to Paul’s familiar words in Philippians 1:6: 

“I am persuaded of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you

will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." 

1957: In the USA

 

Our time to return to the US had come. Why are we looking so glum in the photo? Sad to leave Argentina for a year? Or still into the old-fashioned serious-look for photos?

I was surprised to learn from "Aunt" Margaret's letters that we flew out of Río Cuarto, in the center of the country, rather than from Buenos Aires, the capital. I remember nothing about that time in the interior. However, the details she wrote are interesting.

July 30

We are expecting the Hoyts tomorrow evening, so this is going to be a busy week. Hoyts will go to Río Tercero to visit the Churchills on Thursday and come back here on Friday. Then they leave Río Cuarto by plane Sat. morning, so we'll have the fun of seeing them off. I'm looking forward to having them for we've seen so little of them since we've been back. [The Marshalls were our first missionary neighbors and dear friends in La Carlota.]

August 11

The Hoyts have come and gone. They came Wednesday evening just about supper time. I had fixed supper before the Women's meeting so that it would be ready--had noodle-pea-and-tuna-fish casserole, cole slaw and lemon pie. (made 4 pies that morning).

They left for Río Tercero Thursday morning and got back here for dinner on Friday. They were busy washing out clothes, buying a few last minute things, bathing, etc., the rest of that day. Then we all drove out to the airport Sat. morning to see them off. They were flying over to Chile and then up to the States.  They will be landing in Pittsburgh Wednesday night. 

The more I read Margaret's weekly letters, the greater my admiration for her. I don't know how she managed to show hospitality to the constant visitors who stopped by the headquarters while keeping up with three little active boys, as well as all the missionary work. And to make life even more difficult, all that year, 1957, they were dealing with the additional turmoil of renovations: a new roof, some remodeling, and the entire building painted room by room. As the family's living quarters were worked on, they relocated from one area to another continually, including setting up a kitchen elsewhere and using outdoor bathrooms for awhile.

Aconcagua from the south (Wikipedia)

About the flight, I do remember the noticeable change in scenery as we flew west and over the Andes mountain range. The central plains turned into rolling hills, then mountains, some snow on the peaks and finally all you could see was a white landscape, without even a speck of color or a black dot. It was winter and we were flying over the area where the highest peak in the Americas is located, Aconcagua with an elevation of  22,840 feet. Perhaps this was the flight when we had to wear oxygen masks while flying at such high altitudes. 

A week after leaving Don Bosco, we arrived in Pittsburgh, in Western Pennsylvania, not too far from  the Hirschy homestead in the town of Evans City where Grandpa pastored the Baptist church. 

The first photo is of the parsonage where Mother grew up and the church where my parents were married.

Baptist church and parsonage next door, on right

Sometime later, a new church was built a couple blocks down the road. And the old church building was made into a home for missionaries on furlough, as seen on this 1955 Christmas card.
 

I have no recollection of our arrival, so can only imagine that either my grandparents and/or uncle Phil met us at the airport. Nor am I aware of why my parents chose to be based in Evans City for the year. The previous furlough was spent in Winona Lake, where our mission's headquarters was located. Dad built a house there during that time. Again this year, Dad was involved in a building project, an addition to the parsonage, a small apartment for Grandpa and Grandma, while we occupied the main house. 

The annex

Both apartments in the missionary home next door were occupied. One of the families was that of Joyce (Mother's oldest sister), her husband, Ed de Rosset, and their four children, on leave from Peru. It was during this year that a friendship grew with my cousins Karin, Eddie, Rosie, and Freddy.

 
Karin, two years older, passed on some of her clothes to me. Grandma noted in her October 18 weekly letter to the family scattered abroad. "Rita has grown quite a bit since here. We can tell by her clothes. She is wearing several of Karin's skirts and blouses that are too small for Karin."  

Eddie and I were in the eighth grade. I remember how handsome he was with his thick shock of red hair.

Rosie and I often walked to school together. She was in the fourth grade, I was in eighth.

[We were sad to hear that the school is closed now after eighty four years.]

In the same letter, Grandma mentioned my parents' travels and some of what Lynn and I were up to. "Letters from Kathryn say that they had a safe trip down to Tennessee. Solon has been quite busy speaking five times. They were staying with Mother Hoyt up at Grandview."

Lynn and I stayed with Grandma Hirschy so as not to miss school. Aldo went with my parents and took his school books so Mother could help him not fall behind.

Saturday, Oct. 19:"We expect Solons home Monday. They are to be at Dayton, OH, on Sunday. . . Rita went up to clean upstairs and Lynn has been tooting his trumpet which he got yesterday. Now he went out to rake leaves."

The next weekly letter, Oct. 25, adds that they drove through the night so that Aldo could attend school in the afternoon. 

They were tired and went to bed for an hour or two. Then in the afternoon worked at the building again. Now tomorrow he [Solon] has to go to Canton, Ohio. This is the church that supports them, and they want the whole family to come. He has another appointment in Ohio next week. They sure don’t give him much rest. And I guess we don’t either. However, he enjoys working at this more even if it does make the muscles sore. 

Throughout that year, Grandma's letters included details of the building progress. The two brothers-in-law (Solon and Ed) worked steadily and sacrificially. In November she wrote: "The annex is progressing. The bathroom is about ready to paint and put the blocks on the floor. The plumbing is almost finished."

Where was Grandpa Hirschy all this time? After thirty years pastoring the Evans City Baptist Church, they granted him a ministry leave. He spent October and November on the island of Barbados. He wrote that the warm climate helped his catarrh (buildup of mucus in the back of the nose, throat, or sinuses). It was very restful there. His stomach was feeling better even without medication. Early every morning he walked to the ocean, half a mile away. By mid November he had spoken more than fifty times, was feeling miserable with a cold and so very lonely he could cry.

Grandma was struggling to keep up with everything during his absence. "I have all the correspondence that Pop did to look after beside writing to him and you all."

My grandparents had prayed for a missionary family. Of their six children, four went out as missionaries, in two continents, Africa and South America. Long before the internet or even good and affordable long distance phone service, communication was a challenge. For decades, Grandpa and Grandma kept the family informed and united by typing extracts or summaries of the letters that came in each week and mailing out carbon-copied versions. (No copy-machines back then either.) We looked forward to these lengthy single-spaced epistles, and treasure them to this day!

Now, about my other grandmother, the one I never got to know very well. She looked after me and must have been very helpful to us when she lived close in Winona Lake. However, I was only an infant.

Grandma Hoyt holding Rita

I have a vague memory of playing with buttons or trinkets she kept in a lower drawer. The photo tells me she enjoyed caring for me, her very first granddaughter, after several grandsons.

I admired her from afar, for all that I learned about her. She lost her three-month-old firstborn son, then gave birth to ten more children (including a pair of twins) over a period of fifteen years. Life was hard. They were very poor. There was much dysfunction. Grandpa Hoyt abandoned the family when Dad (# 8) was still a youth of about 16 years of age. And yet, all ten living children achieved high levels of education and most, if not all, were involved in Christian ministry.

Dad never spoke much about his parents. He was a man of action and lived very much in the present. The past was pain-filled.

More recently, I came upon a couple documents and four handwritten letters that told me so much more about this amazing little woman that many have said I resemble.

Grandma's little white house in Grandview, TN

The first document was titled: ANNA  LEOLA  DORSEY  HOYT'S ITINERARY  FROM  BIRTH (A copy of notes found among Grandma Hoyt's papers).

She had kept a record of her many moves from age 9 to 72--family relocations and visits with each offspring as she traveled from one to another in her latter years. I counted at least eighty five moves. 

The only four letters in my possession were written to my family in 1957. She commented on every detail of what was going on in our lives in Argentina and then shared her news and whatever she had heard from the other Hoyts. She always expressed a longing to hear from us, and that the time would pass quickly until our return to the US.

  

January 14: "Your Jan. 3 letter was so welcome for I had waited for it since first of Nov. I do hope you are well situated in your new house. Moving is a real task which I've learned thru many long years. Surely hope you were able to get the temple in perfect shape for the Christmas program. . . 86 was a goodly number at your Christmas program, wasn't it?"

She enjoyed her little house and the church nearby. She helped start an adult Sunday School class. They were studying prophecy in the book of Daniel. 

It was a very cold winter. She had to heat with wood, "It is getting near chore time for me. Must bring in small sticks that burn up quickly then some large dry ones that hold fire longer then a lot of big green chunks to keep fire all night." 

When it rained, however, there was an extra step. "My pile of wood is completely saturated with water. I have to bring in a few small pieces in evening to dry in oven ready to start morning fire."

Racial troubles were uppermost there at the time. There was KKK activity. A negro camp near Grandview had their kitchen and dining room set on fire. "The feeling against the negro is a fast growing menace," she wrote April 30.

In February, Grandma received the Bryan Newsette in the mail (a publication of Bryan University, my parents' alma mater), and wrote, "Lo and behold! What met my eyes? A letter from Solon and Kathryn, and what I liked most was your intention to visit Grandview." 
Later she said, "I'm praying you may spend some time here and then I'd like to be where I can see you many times during your furlough."

As already mentioned, my parents and Aldo did visit Grandma Hoyt in Grandview. They stayed six days, probably their last time together. Lynn and I never got to see her again. In early December, she became ill and died. She was 73.

I remember my father's sadness when she passed away. He was the only one of our family who traveled to Winona Lake for the funeral.

Hoyt family reunion for Grandma's funeral

The second document in my possession was MOTHER'S 1957 DIARY (Excerpts from Anna Leola Dorsey Hoyt's diary for 1957, the year of her death).

Perhaps whoever compiled this did so in an effort to understand what led up to her demise. Her very brief daily entries reminded me of Grandma Hirschy's diaries. There were notes about: the weather; visitors, comings and goings; letters received; the garden, flowers and harvest; household tasks or problems. At regular intervals, two entries which I found interesting: "Defrosted refrigerator." (almost monthly) and "Shampooed my hair."  There was only one hint of a health issue: "September 8 - I had a slight heart attack at about 1 or 2 AM. Also had (almost) a dizzy spell at 8 AM." She immediately moved on to the water problems she was having, "The well went dry or something wrong with the pump." Nothing more was said about her health.

The earthly cause of death will remain a mystery. However, we know that God has an appointed time for each of us to be born and to die. His ways are perfect. And we also know that to be in His presence is unfathomably more desirable and He longs to welcome His own. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psalm 116:15)."