Grandma Vanderberg's Stories

    "I was just a girl of 5 when my family left our southern Wisconsin home to come to Ward County, North Dakota. That was the fall of 1910. My mother had contracted tuberculosis and her doctor told my father that a change of climate might help get her well. Also, my father had a pioneer spirit plus the offer of 160 acres of free land was quite a drawing card. . .

    "My Papa, Momma, grandmother, my two sisters and I moved into our new house on the homestead. It was quite a pretentious house, at least more so than most. We had two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen with a real sink. The outhouse, or "Mrs. Jones", was several yards west of the house. . . Looking back now I still call them the happiest days of my life".  This book is a collection of my grandma's real-life stories, poems and fond memories of a simpler time. 

   Grandma Vanderberg's Stories is a non-fiction collection of stories and poems written by my little grandmother. I compiled these memories from her handwritten stories, newspaper articles, research into family history and papers saved by her daughters. She was a true pioneer, a good Christian woman and loved to write poetry.  Later in life she joined the Foster Grandparents pilot program in which senior citizens mentor children with developmental disabilities. She called them God's blessings and became an advocate asking for better living conditions, better meals and better nursing care at the North Dakota State School.  

"One can never live one's life over again, so there is no use looking back with regret." --M.E.V.

** Melody Heart is listed as a Goodreads author. **