Another case in the Court of Appeal is making news, even before it is decided. The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) was set up to improve the working conditions and strength of farm labor workers in California. Just before Gray Davis left office, he signed a bill (which he had previously vetoed) giving them much more strength. It allows the workers to force the employer to binding mediation, which is really a contradiction in terms because mediation is not supposed to be binding. The parties to a case involving a wine producer is currently in our court. Here is the Bee article:
Challenge snags farmworker mediation law
By Aurelio Rojas -- Bee Capitol BureauPublished 2:15 am PST Monday, January 24, 2005
Three years ago this summer, farm workers capped months of rallies with a 10-day march through the Central Valley to the Capitol in support of a bill that was hailed as the most important farm labor law in years.
The United Farm Workers and its allies held out hope the mandatory mediation law in stalled negotiations would would lead to larger paychecks, better health care and other improved benefits.
But two years after the binding arbitration law signed by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis went into effect, it has been invoked by unions in only two cases.
"(That's) a lot less than we thought would come to fruition," said Genevieve Shiroma, chairwoman of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
Shiroma said that because growers are challenging the constitutionality of the law, unions are awaiting a decision by the state's 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento rather than spending money on cases that could be voided.
Membership in the 27,000-member UFW remains flat. But union officials say the mere existence of the law has forced several growers to negotiate contracts before the cases reach the ALRB.
"We have already utilized the mediation process effectively and we'll be able to utilize it even more in the future because it's going to happen sooner or later," said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez.
But Arthur Mark, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is handling the case for a coalition of growers, cautions the law remains in doubt.
"Everyone is waiting - the growers, unions, even the government," Mark said. "Because if the court comes down on our side, they'll find this thing unconstitutional."
The 2002 law's uncertain course - Davis called it a "historic" bill that would increase protections for farm workers - mirrors that of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which turns 30 years old this June.
The landmark law gave farm workers the right to organize; the 1935 National Labor Relations Act specifically excluded them.
The Agricultural Labor Relations Act signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown ushered in minimum-wage laws and ultimately expanded workplace safety standards to include farm workers. It capped years of bloody strikes and boycotts that catapulted UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez into a national civil rights leader.
"When the law was passed, it was a time of a great deal of optimism," said University of California, Davis, professor Phil Martin, the author of "Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, and the Farm Workers," a 2003 book about the ALRB.
"There was an expectation on the part of some people that wages in California agriculture would be set mostly by collective bargaining."
Martin said that has not occurred, in part, because large-scale illegal immigration has suppressed wages and agribusiness has shifted from a reliance on big employers to small contractors.
Labor officials say many farm workers - estimated at 400,000 to 1 million in California - do not speak English and are unaware of their rights. The ALRB is trying to bridge the education gap with a Spanish-language "novella" that it began distributing last month in fields around the state.
The 14-page publication, which looks like a comic book, outlines the rights and obligations of employers and workers under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.
"It's a beautiful act, but we have to find a way to make it work," said Norma Turner, who was counsel to the ALRB at its inception and is in her fifth year as the agency's general counsel, or chief prosecutor.
Back then, the agency had 11 regional offices and a staff of nearly 300 employees. Today, after years of budget cutbacks - most prominently under Republican Govs. George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson - it has four offices and fewer than 40 employees.
"In the first five months after the law was enacted, we conducted 423 elections in which 50,000 farm workers participated," Turner said. "Today, we conduct very few elections, and some of those are decertifications to get rid of the union."
Turner said unfair labor practice claims brought by farm workers to the ARLB can take years to adjudicate because of lengthy appeals.
"Do you know how much courage it takes a farm worker to walk into one of our offices and file a charge against the employer?" Turner said, noting that most farm workers are illegal immigrants.
Moreover, Turner said farm workers have only six months to file a complaint. She said many who do so within the statute of limitations disappear by the time the case is completed.
Rodriguez, a son-in-law of the late UFW patriarch, said the Agricultural Labor Relations Act has nonetheless improved the lives of many farm workers.
"I don't think it's a question of informing people," Rodriguez said of the ALRB's outreach efforts. "The reality is that a significant percentage of farm workers today are undocumented and afraid to complain."
The UFW has pinned its immediate hopes on a bipartisan bill that stalled in Congress last year. It would allow some illegal immigrant farm workers to apply for legal status.
In theory, Rodriguez said, California laws protect farm workers, but there are not nearly enough state investigators to enforce them.
Carl Borden, an attorney for the 89,000-member California Farm Bureau Federation, said Rodriguez's contention "makes the assumption that there's widespread noncompliance when that's not the case."
"We think the law has worked from the standpoint of bringing stability and peace to the fields," Borden said. "There are some things we are not completely satisfied with - like the mandatory mediation."
Mike Johnston, an organizer for the Teamsters union, Local 890, in the Salinas Valley, has heard the grousing that it was the UFW and Chavez who failed to live up to the promise of the ALRB.
Johnston, who worked briefly for the UFW in the 1970s, disagrees.
"If your members are dramatically low-paid, there's going to be a limit to how much a union is going to spend on organizing," Johnston said. "It's a task that the best organizers for the last 150 years in California have broken their picks on."
WHERE THE LAW STANDS * The landmark 2002 law providing mandatory mediation in farm-labor disputes is under court challenge.* Farmworker unions have invoked the law in only two cases since it took effect in 2003.* Unions say the existence of the law has forced several growers to negotiate contracts before the cases reach the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
Source: Bee Capitol Bureau
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Nettie Jane Stowers Eulogy
During this time after Nettie’s passing, we have all reconstructed in our minds and hearts our associations with her. We have reflected on the influence she has had on our lives and the love we shared with her. I am grateful and honored to have this privilege to reflect publicly.
Nettie blessed her posterity with her life story, not only lived out to its fullest but recorded by her own hand. It is there for us to keep and review. My remarks will include just a sampling of that history—some of it in her own words, together with a smattering of others’ perception of her life—some of which she knew about but was too modest to record.
The Machens, of pioneer heritage, lived in the community of Burton, close to Rexburg in eastern Idaho. Nettie Jane Machen, named after her mother’s sisters Net and Jane, was born in 1912. Father Harry Redfearn Machen and Mother Evalyn McMillan were married on New Year’s Day 1901, the first day of the 20th century. Of eight children, Nettie was the only daughter. Her seven brothers were Harry, Willie, Millan, Ryland, Neal, Lee, and Mac. Mac is the only surviving sibling of that noble generation, and we are thrilled that he has made the long journey from Kentucky to be with us today. Nettie always referred to Mac by his given name, Grieve. Until I was an adult, I never realized that Uncle Mac, whom I knew, was Grandma’s brother Grieve.
Many of Nettie’s great memories of childhood and later were formed in the home her father built for the family. She described the home as if it was an old friend. She wrote: “With the family growing in size and number, the little log house on the farm in the valley was soon outgrown and in 1918 a new rock home was built to replace it. What a delight to watch the progress--first a large hole was scraped out, then the cement walls and floor for a full basement were poured. Soft, grayish-white rock was hauled from Blackburn's Quarry at Sunny Dell. Hard granite rock for trim was quarried out of a rocky hollow east of Rexburg. Masons cut it into slabs and soon the walls were rising for a beautiful, comfortable home. On the main floor were a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and hall, plus porches, front and back. Mother had never liked upstairs bedrooms, so downstairs were three bedrooms for the children and a large fruit cellar. Even though electricity was not then available in the rural districts, Father had the whole house wired. Probably the thing that brought the greatest joy to Mother was the running water, hot and cold, in her kitchen and bathroom.”
There is a song from a play Nettie saw years ago that lyricizes: “When you’re taking a bath on a Saturday night, the family’s only daughter, you can sit and soak up to your ears and not in sixth hand water.” Nettie had some of that pampering. She got her own bedroom; she got her brothers’ protection; and she got the newborn colt. But being the only daughter also had its burdens.
The acreage her father farmed in Burton was not big enough to support the growing family, so he also farmed in the rolling hills above Rexburg—the dry farm. After her brother Harry married, he took over the management of the dry farm. When Nettie was 11 years old, her father could not find a cook for the harvest crew on the dry farm. Her mother was expecting, so she could not go. Young Nettie volunteered. Although her mother and father were hesitant, it soon became clear Nettie was their only option. Her father stayed at the dry farm for two days to coach her, but then had to leave. Nettie described her experience:
“Well, in a couple of days the bread ran out, and I realized that, though I had watched Mother mix bread through the years and knew the ingredients, I wasn't at all sure of amounts. So I hurried over to Uncle Jack Palmer's farm to ask Mrs. Edith Clark, their cook, how much of each ingredient to use, then went home and proceeded to mix my first batch of bread. It didn't raise like Mother's always did, but I struggled and finally took four loaves out of the oven. And what loaves--they were squatty and hard and heavy. I think you could have knocked a horse down with one of them.
“So that left us without bread for supper. Harry told me how to make baking powder biscuits, but when he came in to help get supper on the table he said there weren't enough biscuits and he would stir up another batch quick like.
“Well, in came the men, hungry as usual. When they had finished off my batch of biscuits, we brought Harry's to the table. After the first bite, my cousin Ray George said, ‘Nettie, why did you serve the best biscuits first?’ Talk about beginner's luck! And Harry about chased him out of the house.
“Needless to say, I had learned a good lesson in bread making, and the next day my bread looked and tasted more like Mother's always did.”
Nettie’s love for flowers bloomed during the summers in those rolling hills of eastern Idaho. She picked blue bells, honeysuckle, Larkspur, yellow violets, wild roses, and sego lilies and arranged them neatly in tin cans. Through the years, she grew many varieties of flowers and enjoyed sharing them. Her yard was her sanctuary, where she could sink her hands into the soil and make beautiful things appear. She was so frustrated when people would steal the flowers she had carefully grown, but, if they asked, she would gladly give the same flowers away to brighten a day. She provided flowers for weddings, condolences, parties, and other special occasions, but she was perhaps best known for her immaculate arrangements of fresh flowers that adorned the chapel on Sunday for ward meetings and stake conferences. The ward members knew when Nettie was out of town by the absence of flowers at the pulpit. Many of her descendants have inherited this love for plants and flowers and this ability to beautify their surroundings.
Nettie received her first church assignment when she was 14 years old, as secretary of the Primary. On the occasion of this calling, her father impressed upon her the importance of diligence and duty. He told her: “Now Nettie, you have been given a responsibility and you have a job to do. If you shirk, the work will not be done, as it is no one else’s responsibility. It is yours.” Nettie later commented: “It was more than advice he gave me that day. It was a principle he lived in all facets of his life. And I have tried to fulfill my callings in life as he did his.”
Also when Nettie was 14 years old, Bob Stowers showed up in Burton and went to work for Harry on the dry farm. One day, Bob joined Nettie and her brothers for a game of baseball on the front lawn. Nettie recalled: “At one point [Bob] threw a ball to me at home plate and I caught it on the end of a finger. It hurt like mad, but I wouldn’t let him see that it did. You see, I already had a crush.” Bob left to work other places, but returned several times over the years, ostensibly to see Nettie’s brothers or to find work in the area. Nettie graduated from Madison High School and went on to Ricks College to become a teacher. Although Bob had proposed marriage, she persisted in her education. Because of the failing economy, however, it became increasingly difficult for Nettie’s parents to support her. She wrote: “I realized that further education for me would work a great financial hardship on Father and Mother. And to be right honest about it all, I guess I wanted to marry Bob more than I wanted to get my credentials and become a school teacher. So, on April 10, 1932, when he again asked me to marry him, I said, ‘Yes.’”
Bob and Nettie were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 22, 1932, in the midst of the Depression. Their marriage was blessed with three children: Robert Wallace, Ronetta Jean, and Richard Harry. They moved many times in search of employment opportunities during those difficult times. When World War II broke out, Bob went to California to find work in the shipyards. Nettie and the children soon followed, and, except for a brief period in Salt Lake City, Nettie has lived in California ever since.
In 1946, Bob took Nettie to see a house on Parker Avenue in Sacramento. Nettie’s first reaction was, “Do you think we need one this big?” But they bought the big house, and it has been the locus of fond memories for three generations of their descendants since then.
Bob, Ronetta, and Dick grew to adulthood and married. Nettie grew to love Faith, Wally, and Evelyn as if they were her own children, and that love was amply reciprocated. In the 1960s, Bob and Nettie began what became a tradition with the older grandchildren. Each New Year’s Eve, the grandchildren would go to Grandma and Grandpa’s for an overnighter. We played games, ate treats, and celebrated the new year. Grandma had a heavy glass container in the dining room with hard candy in it. While I am sure some of the grandchildren mastered the art of opening and closing that container without making a noise, some of us invariably clanged the lid against the bottom of the container. It rang out like a bell which Grandma could hear from just about anywhere in that big house. To all of her grandchildren, older and younger, Nettie was everything you could imagine a wonderful grandmother to be. She would put her own life on hold to be there for us, even though it sometimes meant travel and hardship.
Bob and Nettie celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1982 with a reception in their honor. Nettie recorded: “Many said that was the nicest party they had ever attended—the whole afternoon so friendly and informal, and we thought so, too. Our family did us proud.”
Bob’s health failed and, in 1994, he was near death. Nettie’s life story recounts:
“[Bob] seemed in no pain, not even the headaches that had plagued him almost his entire lifetime, and we were grateful for that respite at least. I sat with him for a long time during the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, November 22nd. I was reluctant to leave, but he seemed to be resting so peacefully, and Ronetta said, ‘Mom, you=d better go home and get some rest.’
“Bob slipped away from us early in the morning of November 23rd, 1994, at the age of 86 years. He had been a good son, brother, husband and father. And he was dearly loved by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well.
“So life goes on for me - not the give and take of the 62 years we spent together. There is loneliness, but so many happy memories, and the assurance that one day - after I have accomplished the things the Lord would have me do - we will be together once more.”
This matter-of-fact faith, nothing doubting, was typical of Nettie’s life. Even when there was plenty to worry or complain about, she believed in the broader picture of eternal life provided by her Savior. Her actions spoke louder than the most eloquent words.
Nettie was unapologetically pious in her personal comportment. While she held definite opinions concerning propriety, she reached out with love to those around her, forming relationships of friendship and respect with neighbors and acquaintances of many backgrounds and ideologies.
Until she was 50 years old, most of Nettie’s adult church service, except for an interlude as Relief Society President, focused on the youth. She led both ward and stake youth groups, girls’ camp, dance festivals, and every kind of enriching activity for the younger generation. She taught them to distinguish good from bad and to choose right over wrong. In her middle age, however, her focus turned to the adult women, leading them in theology lessons and helping them beautify their homes and relationships.
When Nettie was 81 years old, she was asked to return to her work with the youth—this time girls 14 and 15 years old. You can imagine her raised eyebrows at some of their revealing fashions, coarse language, and nontraditional attitudes. Yet, in her life story she wrote not about judgment or disdain but love and understanding of this precious generation of teenagers.
On Nettie’s 85th birthday, she attended a celebration in her honor at Ronetta’s home. During the evening, the doorbell rang, and Nettie was invited to the front door. There she found Dick who had traveled 700 miles to be with her for a few hours on her birthday. Though Dick has lived so many miles away, Nettie always appreciated his phone calls and concern for her welfare.
From a very young age, Nettie attended large family reunions—the Machens, the McMillans, and later the Stowers. In her life story she documented those occasions with precision and affection. Bob and Nettie spent many vacations traveling to, participating in, and traveling from these reunions. In all, they visited 41 states and the District of Columbia.
In 1973, they prepared for a trip cross-country by car in the summer heat to the Stowers reunion in Virginia. The day before they left, their son Bob turned his brand new Ford LTD station wagon over to them for the trip. Nettie remembered: “We had never traveled in such style, nor enjoyed a trip more. It was hard to believe the air conditioning could make such a difference!” They put 7,026 miles on the new car. Nettie was grateful for son Bob’s generosity then and throughout the years.
Family reunions may have been Nettie’s most cherished earthly activity, renewing the loving bonds of close family and meeting relatives previously unmet. It is then easy to imagine the unreserved joy Nettie felt Thursday night as she stepped through that veil—her beloved Bob, cherished Mother and Father, honored Brothers, other friends and relatives. Their reunion was real because the spirit holds the personality and memory, the friendships and love. That family reunion, for her, was joyful beyond compare, having every happy element of a grand family reunion except the potato salad.
Four years ago, Nettie had a stroke. Although she slipped into the twilight of this life, she did not yet move on to the dawn of the next life. Stranded in mortality, she could communicate little. Though frustrated and often low, Nettie persevered. A verse from the hymn, How Firm a Foundation, applies well to these last few years of Nettie’s life:
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go“The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow“For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,“And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”
As did Bob before his passing, Nettie went to Ronetta’s home where she received loving care and comfort. As often happens, the service she received enriched and humbled those who gave it.
Death released her to peace on January 20, 2005.
May her memory and example continue to bless us as we strive to perpetuate her legacy of virtuous life.
Nettie blessed her posterity with her life story, not only lived out to its fullest but recorded by her own hand. It is there for us to keep and review. My remarks will include just a sampling of that history—some of it in her own words, together with a smattering of others’ perception of her life—some of which she knew about but was too modest to record.
The Machens, of pioneer heritage, lived in the community of Burton, close to Rexburg in eastern Idaho. Nettie Jane Machen, named after her mother’s sisters Net and Jane, was born in 1912. Father Harry Redfearn Machen and Mother Evalyn McMillan were married on New Year’s Day 1901, the first day of the 20th century. Of eight children, Nettie was the only daughter. Her seven brothers were Harry, Willie, Millan, Ryland, Neal, Lee, and Mac. Mac is the only surviving sibling of that noble generation, and we are thrilled that he has made the long journey from Kentucky to be with us today. Nettie always referred to Mac by his given name, Grieve. Until I was an adult, I never realized that Uncle Mac, whom I knew, was Grandma’s brother Grieve.
Many of Nettie’s great memories of childhood and later were formed in the home her father built for the family. She described the home as if it was an old friend. She wrote: “With the family growing in size and number, the little log house on the farm in the valley was soon outgrown and in 1918 a new rock home was built to replace it. What a delight to watch the progress--first a large hole was scraped out, then the cement walls and floor for a full basement were poured. Soft, grayish-white rock was hauled from Blackburn's Quarry at Sunny Dell. Hard granite rock for trim was quarried out of a rocky hollow east of Rexburg. Masons cut it into slabs and soon the walls were rising for a beautiful, comfortable home. On the main floor were a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and hall, plus porches, front and back. Mother had never liked upstairs bedrooms, so downstairs were three bedrooms for the children and a large fruit cellar. Even though electricity was not then available in the rural districts, Father had the whole house wired. Probably the thing that brought the greatest joy to Mother was the running water, hot and cold, in her kitchen and bathroom.”
There is a song from a play Nettie saw years ago that lyricizes: “When you’re taking a bath on a Saturday night, the family’s only daughter, you can sit and soak up to your ears and not in sixth hand water.” Nettie had some of that pampering. She got her own bedroom; she got her brothers’ protection; and she got the newborn colt. But being the only daughter also had its burdens.
The acreage her father farmed in Burton was not big enough to support the growing family, so he also farmed in the rolling hills above Rexburg—the dry farm. After her brother Harry married, he took over the management of the dry farm. When Nettie was 11 years old, her father could not find a cook for the harvest crew on the dry farm. Her mother was expecting, so she could not go. Young Nettie volunteered. Although her mother and father were hesitant, it soon became clear Nettie was their only option. Her father stayed at the dry farm for two days to coach her, but then had to leave. Nettie described her experience:
“Well, in a couple of days the bread ran out, and I realized that, though I had watched Mother mix bread through the years and knew the ingredients, I wasn't at all sure of amounts. So I hurried over to Uncle Jack Palmer's farm to ask Mrs. Edith Clark, their cook, how much of each ingredient to use, then went home and proceeded to mix my first batch of bread. It didn't raise like Mother's always did, but I struggled and finally took four loaves out of the oven. And what loaves--they were squatty and hard and heavy. I think you could have knocked a horse down with one of them.
“So that left us without bread for supper. Harry told me how to make baking powder biscuits, but when he came in to help get supper on the table he said there weren't enough biscuits and he would stir up another batch quick like.
“Well, in came the men, hungry as usual. When they had finished off my batch of biscuits, we brought Harry's to the table. After the first bite, my cousin Ray George said, ‘Nettie, why did you serve the best biscuits first?’ Talk about beginner's luck! And Harry about chased him out of the house.
“Needless to say, I had learned a good lesson in bread making, and the next day my bread looked and tasted more like Mother's always did.”
Nettie’s love for flowers bloomed during the summers in those rolling hills of eastern Idaho. She picked blue bells, honeysuckle, Larkspur, yellow violets, wild roses, and sego lilies and arranged them neatly in tin cans. Through the years, she grew many varieties of flowers and enjoyed sharing them. Her yard was her sanctuary, where she could sink her hands into the soil and make beautiful things appear. She was so frustrated when people would steal the flowers she had carefully grown, but, if they asked, she would gladly give the same flowers away to brighten a day. She provided flowers for weddings, condolences, parties, and other special occasions, but she was perhaps best known for her immaculate arrangements of fresh flowers that adorned the chapel on Sunday for ward meetings and stake conferences. The ward members knew when Nettie was out of town by the absence of flowers at the pulpit. Many of her descendants have inherited this love for plants and flowers and this ability to beautify their surroundings.
Nettie received her first church assignment when she was 14 years old, as secretary of the Primary. On the occasion of this calling, her father impressed upon her the importance of diligence and duty. He told her: “Now Nettie, you have been given a responsibility and you have a job to do. If you shirk, the work will not be done, as it is no one else’s responsibility. It is yours.” Nettie later commented: “It was more than advice he gave me that day. It was a principle he lived in all facets of his life. And I have tried to fulfill my callings in life as he did his.”
Also when Nettie was 14 years old, Bob Stowers showed up in Burton and went to work for Harry on the dry farm. One day, Bob joined Nettie and her brothers for a game of baseball on the front lawn. Nettie recalled: “At one point [Bob] threw a ball to me at home plate and I caught it on the end of a finger. It hurt like mad, but I wouldn’t let him see that it did. You see, I already had a crush.” Bob left to work other places, but returned several times over the years, ostensibly to see Nettie’s brothers or to find work in the area. Nettie graduated from Madison High School and went on to Ricks College to become a teacher. Although Bob had proposed marriage, she persisted in her education. Because of the failing economy, however, it became increasingly difficult for Nettie’s parents to support her. She wrote: “I realized that further education for me would work a great financial hardship on Father and Mother. And to be right honest about it all, I guess I wanted to marry Bob more than I wanted to get my credentials and become a school teacher. So, on April 10, 1932, when he again asked me to marry him, I said, ‘Yes.’”
Bob and Nettie were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 22, 1932, in the midst of the Depression. Their marriage was blessed with three children: Robert Wallace, Ronetta Jean, and Richard Harry. They moved many times in search of employment opportunities during those difficult times. When World War II broke out, Bob went to California to find work in the shipyards. Nettie and the children soon followed, and, except for a brief period in Salt Lake City, Nettie has lived in California ever since.
In 1946, Bob took Nettie to see a house on Parker Avenue in Sacramento. Nettie’s first reaction was, “Do you think we need one this big?” But they bought the big house, and it has been the locus of fond memories for three generations of their descendants since then.
Bob, Ronetta, and Dick grew to adulthood and married. Nettie grew to love Faith, Wally, and Evelyn as if they were her own children, and that love was amply reciprocated. In the 1960s, Bob and Nettie began what became a tradition with the older grandchildren. Each New Year’s Eve, the grandchildren would go to Grandma and Grandpa’s for an overnighter. We played games, ate treats, and celebrated the new year. Grandma had a heavy glass container in the dining room with hard candy in it. While I am sure some of the grandchildren mastered the art of opening and closing that container without making a noise, some of us invariably clanged the lid against the bottom of the container. It rang out like a bell which Grandma could hear from just about anywhere in that big house. To all of her grandchildren, older and younger, Nettie was everything you could imagine a wonderful grandmother to be. She would put her own life on hold to be there for us, even though it sometimes meant travel and hardship.
Bob and Nettie celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1982 with a reception in their honor. Nettie recorded: “Many said that was the nicest party they had ever attended—the whole afternoon so friendly and informal, and we thought so, too. Our family did us proud.”
Bob’s health failed and, in 1994, he was near death. Nettie’s life story recounts:
“[Bob] seemed in no pain, not even the headaches that had plagued him almost his entire lifetime, and we were grateful for that respite at least. I sat with him for a long time during the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, November 22nd. I was reluctant to leave, but he seemed to be resting so peacefully, and Ronetta said, ‘Mom, you=d better go home and get some rest.’
“Bob slipped away from us early in the morning of November 23rd, 1994, at the age of 86 years. He had been a good son, brother, husband and father. And he was dearly loved by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well.
“So life goes on for me - not the give and take of the 62 years we spent together. There is loneliness, but so many happy memories, and the assurance that one day - after I have accomplished the things the Lord would have me do - we will be together once more.”
This matter-of-fact faith, nothing doubting, was typical of Nettie’s life. Even when there was plenty to worry or complain about, she believed in the broader picture of eternal life provided by her Savior. Her actions spoke louder than the most eloquent words.
Nettie was unapologetically pious in her personal comportment. While she held definite opinions concerning propriety, she reached out with love to those around her, forming relationships of friendship and respect with neighbors and acquaintances of many backgrounds and ideologies.
Until she was 50 years old, most of Nettie’s adult church service, except for an interlude as Relief Society President, focused on the youth. She led both ward and stake youth groups, girls’ camp, dance festivals, and every kind of enriching activity for the younger generation. She taught them to distinguish good from bad and to choose right over wrong. In her middle age, however, her focus turned to the adult women, leading them in theology lessons and helping them beautify their homes and relationships.
When Nettie was 81 years old, she was asked to return to her work with the youth—this time girls 14 and 15 years old. You can imagine her raised eyebrows at some of their revealing fashions, coarse language, and nontraditional attitudes. Yet, in her life story she wrote not about judgment or disdain but love and understanding of this precious generation of teenagers.
On Nettie’s 85th birthday, she attended a celebration in her honor at Ronetta’s home. During the evening, the doorbell rang, and Nettie was invited to the front door. There she found Dick who had traveled 700 miles to be with her for a few hours on her birthday. Though Dick has lived so many miles away, Nettie always appreciated his phone calls and concern for her welfare.
From a very young age, Nettie attended large family reunions—the Machens, the McMillans, and later the Stowers. In her life story she documented those occasions with precision and affection. Bob and Nettie spent many vacations traveling to, participating in, and traveling from these reunions. In all, they visited 41 states and the District of Columbia.
In 1973, they prepared for a trip cross-country by car in the summer heat to the Stowers reunion in Virginia. The day before they left, their son Bob turned his brand new Ford LTD station wagon over to them for the trip. Nettie remembered: “We had never traveled in such style, nor enjoyed a trip more. It was hard to believe the air conditioning could make such a difference!” They put 7,026 miles on the new car. Nettie was grateful for son Bob’s generosity then and throughout the years.
Family reunions may have been Nettie’s most cherished earthly activity, renewing the loving bonds of close family and meeting relatives previously unmet. It is then easy to imagine the unreserved joy Nettie felt Thursday night as she stepped through that veil—her beloved Bob, cherished Mother and Father, honored Brothers, other friends and relatives. Their reunion was real because the spirit holds the personality and memory, the friendships and love. That family reunion, for her, was joyful beyond compare, having every happy element of a grand family reunion except the potato salad.
Four years ago, Nettie had a stroke. Although she slipped into the twilight of this life, she did not yet move on to the dawn of the next life. Stranded in mortality, she could communicate little. Though frustrated and often low, Nettie persevered. A verse from the hymn, How Firm a Foundation, applies well to these last few years of Nettie’s life:
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go“The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow“For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,“And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”
As did Bob before his passing, Nettie went to Ronetta’s home where she received loving care and comfort. As often happens, the service she received enriched and humbled those who gave it.
Death released her to peace on January 20, 2005.
May her memory and example continue to bless us as we strive to perpetuate her legacy of virtuous life.
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