This is a photo of my mother, Anna Marie Wall Fandrich, at the age of 90. At that time, she was in full blown dementia but she was happy and content, even though she didn't know who Gary and I were. I was the "nice lady who took care of her" and Gary was "the man that I lived with" and she called him "her man".
My mother immigrated from Russia with her parents and younger brother, Adolph, on May 1, 1910. She started school at age seven, but she spoke only German. She said that other students in the classroom tutored her so she could learn to speak and write English. Her first job at age fifteen was working as a housekeeper for $10 a month. Other earlier jobs consisted of working in a local mercantile, a live-in housekeeper and nanny and working as a cook in places she called "Old People's Homes".
In 1938 she moved to Sacramento where she soon met my dad, Sam Fandrich. They married in 1939. She was an attentive mother who loved to sew clothes and cook delicious meals for her family and she always had a large garden filled with vegetables.
While I worked, she helped take care of her grandchildren, Michael and Lori, when they were between the ages of one and six. She loved talking about the wonderful and funny experiences she had while caring for her grandchildren. Ashley Friedli, her only great grandchild, was very dear to her heart.
Cindie wrote a poem that turned out to be a solace during times that often were difficult while caring for her. It reads:
"It is said that the Mother-daughter bond
is one of the strongest
and it can never be broken,
And that means
Some things don't have to be understood
or solved or perfect.
We just keep on loving each other through life.
No matter what."
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