Sandlor

Grandma Loretta

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Loretta, or “Grandma,” as so many of us called her, had a full and bountiful life.  

Born May 16, 1919, Loretta Lenora Erickson, was the middle child of nine born to Walter and Nora 

Erickson in Cambridge Minnesota.  Loretta married Bud Wistedt on March 30, 1940.  Together they 

made their home, raised three children, and lived in the same house in St Louis Park for over sixty years.

Recently, I was trying to think back to when Grandma Loretta and Grandpa Bud first became a part of 

my life.  In looking through old scrapbooks of mine, I found pictures of them as early as 1980.

As I was starting to prepare to speak today, my thoughts turned to an email that I received a couple 

month’s ago from a friend of mine.  It was one of those emails with a story about an event that supposedly

had taken place at an airport.  At the time, I remember thinking what a nice story and I passed it on to a 

list of friends.

Last week I called a dear friend in Australia to tell her about Grandma’s condition and that things weren’t 

looking to good.  The next day I received that very same email back from her.  I’d like to share that email

with you today.

The story began like this;

“Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport.  Standing near 

the security gate, they hugged and the mother said "I love you and I wish you enough".

The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough.  Your love is all I ever needed. 

I wish you enough, too, Mom".

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window  where I was seated.

Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she

welcomed me in by asking "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?"

"Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever goodbye?"

"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back

 will be for my funeral" she said.

"When you were saying goodbye, I heard you say 'I wish you enough'.  May I ask what that means?"

She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations.  My parents

used to say it to everyone".

She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more.

 "When we said 'I wish you enough' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just

 enough good things to sustain them".

Then turning toward me she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

The email closes by saying;

It takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an

entire life to forget them.

Grandma’s life was filled with more than enough to sustain her.  Loretta’s life flourished.

Loretta’s life was full of enough adventure.  Countless family vacations across the US when her kids were young, ten bus tours, three trips to Europe including a trip to the Scandinavian countries are just the tip of ice berg.  When Bud retired, they transformed a van into a mobile home and circled the country every spring and fall for several years.  But her adventure didn’t stop there. 

Everyday was an adventure.  Grandma would be the first to tell you about how in her youth there wasn’t a tree in Powderhorn Park that she didn’t climb or how roller skating became a life long passion for her.  By the way, did you know that Loretta and Bud first met roller skating?  

Whether it was fishing, hunting, cross country skiing, or dancing Grandma approached life as one grand adventure.  Ask Bob sometime about the time when he and Grandma blew a hole in the backyard of their St Louis Park home.  Ask Mary about the Saturday Club’s adventures at camp or the great cookie bakes.  Ask Lisa about their boundary water adventures.  Or ask Lori about the adventures of helping raise Lori’s children and grand children.  Watch how each one of them beams as they tell the stories of their mother and grandmother.

Loretta’s life was full of enough laughs and fun.  Grandma worked hard at raising her family but she never lost sight of the lighter side to life.  Bessy, as Grandpa often called her, had a wonderful sense of humor.  She enjoyed everything from WCCO’s worse jokes of the week which she loved to share with her children first thing in the morning to the witty subtle comments she shared with us girls and her friends.

Loretta’s life was full of enough challenges and accomplishments.  Being a child of the depression made a huge impact on the way Grandma approached life.  Besides her steady job as a homemaker, volunteering also became a way of life.  Whether it was running the cake walk at the Lennox PTA carnivals, or leading Mary and Lori’s Camp Fire Girls group when they were young, or helping to pass out cookies at Tanadoona’s Halloween events, or holding on to the other end of a board for Grandpa, Grandma was always there with a willing hand, a cheerful smile and ready to do her best.  She was always the proudest when we would call on her to be the one we needed.

Loretta’s life was full of enough fortitude and determination.  And I’m not just talking about being married to Bud for 65 years either.  That’s a whole other story!  -   Did you know that shortly after Lori was born Loretta had roumatic fever and was bed ridden for almost a year?  Would you have ever guessed that the same Grandma Loretta that would climb around on the McDonalds play land sets with her great grand children had had back surgery?  And who would have thought that at the age of 75 she would have gone on her first BWCA canoe trip with her family.  Did you know that up until a week before Loretta entered the hospital she was still walking her two miles every morning at Knollwood mall and doing her morning exercises?  And did you know the morning before she died, as Lori and I where doing her morning care, she proudly announced that she was going to try and walk that day.  The steps came hard for her weak body but she did manage to stand and stand tall.

Loretta’s life was full of enough friends.  As we as a family were searching for pictures for this slide show that you all have been watching and enjoying, one thing was strikingly clear.  Grandma had a lot of friends.  Whether it was the roller skating gang of her youth or the woman’s club gatherings, each and every friend was special to her.  There were the square dancing friends, the mall walking friends, the bus tour friends, the neighborhood friends, the old time dancing friends that called themselves “the Twenty Grand” and the Camp Fire and Camp Tanadoona friends.  Each one of her groups of friends shared in a special part of Loretta’s life, and as witnessed here today by this wonderful gathering,  -  what a great friend Loretta was to us all.

Loretta’s life was full of enough appreciation for the natural wonders around her.  Her home is filled with photos that she had taken of incredible scenes from around the world.  Plants and flowers and gardening were all part of her life.  And true to form, to that appreciation, one morning last week as the sun was shining in her hospital window on all the beautiful flowers that people had sent her, Grandma looked over and said that she wished she had her camera so that she could have capture that moment in time.

Loretta’s life was full of enough family.  As one of nine that means there are a whole lot of cousins, nieces and nephews who all will remember Loretta as the kind, caring, wonderful woman that she was.  Grandma was always close to her siblings but she was also equally as dedicated to Bud’s family.  One of Loretta’s dearest friends was her sister-in-law Sally.  Sally and Loretta shared a special bond that was forged over years of sharing household duties and harmonizing in the kitchen.

Loretta’s husband, children, grand children and great grand children meant the world to her.  Her dedication to them took priority over everything else.  A helping hand, a word of encouragement, and loving support through the tough times were all a part of her generous style.  I wish you could have seen the way Grandma would light up in her hospital bed whenever the great grand children came by  -  especially baby Kathryn who she waited so long for.

Loretta’s life was full of enough love.  Grandma had an immense power to love that she displayed everyday.  She loved her family and friends with her whole being and right up to the end she was surrounded by our love.

Loretta’s life was full of enough passion for living.  If there is one thing that I want you to remember about Loretta’s life is that she was a role model for us all to look to in our approach to life.  Loretta didn’t just let life pass her by she was involved to the max and was a friend to all.  Her life was an inspiration for aging, if we could all only live our lives with such grace, dignity and class. 

Now there were some things in Loretta’s life that there was never enough of.  There were never enough Twins baseball games with her grand son-in-law Jim.  There was never enough time spent at Mystic Lake gambling.  There were never enough freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies for Larry.  There were never enough dances with her Bud  - and there was never enough time spent with the people she loved.  As the email stated, Loretta’s life and legacy will take a life time to forget.

In closing I would like to share with you a poem that Lori asked me to read by Henry Van Dyke.

I am standing upon the seashore.  A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength.  I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?”

Gone from my sight.  That is all.  She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.  And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:  “Here she comes!”

"Perhaps they are not the stars in the night sky, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

I would like to offer thanks for Grandma's life.
We give thanks for Grandma's loving support through out the years.  We are thankful for her generous nature, her helping hands, her words of encouragement.  As the constant tread that held us together Grandma's dedication to us is an inspiration.  We give thanks for her adventurous spirit and passion for living.  Thank you for Grandma's appreciation for life and the world around us.  We are thankful for all the treasured memories that won't soon be forgotten.  Undaunted by life's challenges Grandma is a reminder of how to live - with grace, dignity, love and dedication - while never taking ourselves too seriously.  We are thankful for our friend, wife, mother and grandmother.