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)."