Funeral Tribute to Carrie Wrathall
Written by Jill Juchau, 1972
Not long before her final illness - and after she'd heard of the death of another of her old friends - grandma made the comment that when she died, no one who remembered her would be left to participate at the funeral. She said that she'd like her family to take part - after all , we were the ones who knew her best. So, in accordance with this wish she expressed, Mother [Irene Wrathall Millward] asked me to give this little tribute to Grandma, from the family.
Anna Carolina Peterson was born May 20, 1888 in the village of Ramdala, in southern Sweden. She returned to Ramdala in 1970 and was photographed at the church where she was christened. Her parents were converted to the L. D. S. church and she came with them and her older sister Adele to Utah in 1891. [They came] to Grantsville because an Uncle, August Peterson, and his family had already settled here. But uncle August died suddenly, and before long Aunt [Catherine] found it necessary to move her family of 8 young children elsewhere, in order to provide for them, and the Holger Peterson family remained in Grantsville.
The little family had to struggle make ends meet those first years, but gradually, through industry and thrift, they began to make a place for themselves in the community. Their home was humble, but they always maintained strong family ties and traditions. Grandma told how, the first Christmas they spent in Grantsville, they couldn't have a tree, but Grandpa Peterson walked out above town and found a well-shaped greasewood, which he cut and carried home. The children decorated it with colored paper chains and other homemade things, and the family celebrated Christmas according to the customs of Sweden.
Grandma always made much of Christmas. In her later years, she made her home like a fairyland of sparkle and shine and little christmas scenes, so that grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike looked forward . . . .
Although coming from a Swedish-speaking home, she had a bright, inquiring mind. [She] was able to do very well in the local school and was valedictorian of her class. She received a teaching certificate from the University of Utah and, beginning at age 14, taught for 8 years in Tooele, American Falls (Idaho), and Grantsville schools. She remembered her students with much affection and many humorous stories. Her family remembers the stress and importance she placed on education, and the encouragement she always gave, including financial sacrifice, in order that they should all be graduated from a university.
She first remembered Grandpa when, in about third grade, their teacher ordered him to sit in the double desk with her for some long-forgotten infraction of the rules. Grandma was so humiliated [that] she couldn't raise her head. When Grandpa saw the tears in her eyes, he tried to apologise by taking all the books out of the desk and piling them up on the seat between them as a separation, hoping to make her feel that she was not really sitting with a boy. She said when he did this, she first thought of him as a kind and sympathetic person. And Grandpa must have chosen her about then, too, because many years later he told her that, when he was about 9 or 10, he was thinking he'd need to get a team and buggy so he could go courting Mother, who lived at the other end of town. They were married in October of 1910, just before he left to fulfill a 2 1/2 year mission to the North Central States.
When he returned, they made their home on North Cooley street, where she helped Grandpa in every possible way, raising chickens, turkeys, pet lambs, and preserving fruit and vegetables for winter use. Grandma had not grown up on a large farm, and this life was new and difficult for her. In those days it was the custom for the farmer's wife to cook three meals a day for hired help. During haying and threshing time , 6 to 12 men would be waiting on the front lawn at 6 a. m. for breakfast. [They also had] a big meal at noon, and again in the evening before going home. She has often laughed at impractical things she tried to do, such as having a clean white linen tablecloth and a fresh flower centerpiece at each meal. Grandma always tried to make her home a place of refinement where rough language or action were not to be found. She supported Grandpa in all of his endeavors, whether in business, church, community service or music.
She worked to make her surroundings inside and out clean and attractive, and she worked to build up the quality of the soil in her yard, wheelbarrowful by wheelbarrowful. She studied gardening books and catalogs, and we made many trips to the floral companies for new fertilizers, tools, sprays, or fanciful little animals to set around among her plants. She had much information gained from experience to pass on about her years of gardening. She often said, in choosing plants for your garden, take a walk around Grantsville and observe which plants are thriving best in the conditions here. No use fighting nature by choosing plants which can't live with hot dry wind, or an alkaline soil.
A few years ago a young woman, just starting her home, was walking through Grandma's garden. She said, "But you're so lucky to have nice workable soil like this. Up where we are, it just dries up and cracks." Grandma made some airy comment, but we well knew that luck had nothing to do with it. That soil was composed of 1 wheelbarrow of sand, 1 wheelbarrow leaf mold, 1 wheelbarrow home-made compost, 1 wheelbarrow barnyard manure (these are a few of her ingredients), and all mixed together by Grandma with tender, loving care. The day she had her stroke 5 months ago, I had been sent to buy her 3 new rose plants - certain names - and a hummingbird feeder at Brown's Floral in Salt Lake City.
Grandma didn't approve of idleness. She had many hobbies. She learned to weave rugs from her mother on a loom Grandpa Peterson built. She made many articles of crocheting, knitting and embroidery for her own home and for her _____ ______ _______ kept her daughters and granddaughters in crocheted and knitted slippers and afghans. She tied or quilted many quilts for her family. She taught me to quilt, and I have on my bed a beautiful patchwork quilt she gave me. Great-grandma Peterson pieced it many years ago, and I helped Grandma finish it just last year.
As a family we have so many wonderful memories of Grandma. She was always so helpful, interested, and willing to forget her own problems and help you with yours. It is our prayer that we will continue to be a harmonious family and not grow apart now that Grandma is gone - that the sadness of these past 5 months will soon be lifted, and we'll be able to think of her with happy memories of all the good things she brought into our lives. We ask this in the name . . . .