Chips and Chunks: Family Friend Friday

Growing up we had a large group of family friends that were single people. Generally they were people that my parents worked with and/or we went to church with. Over the years many of them married and moved away but I remember them as being part of our family.

One of those was Martha King. Martha was in nurses training at LaJunta Mennonite School of Nursing with Mom. She was older than many of the students but was in Mom's class - the class of 1955. After they graduated, Mom married and settled in Greensburg, Kansas. Martha, like many other Mennonite nurses, got a job at the hospital in Greensburg. At that time the hospital, Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, was run by the Mennonite Church.

I remember Martha often coming out to our house for dinner. She and my brother shared a birthday - June 5.

Tom Egli family, Ken Schmidt family and Martha on the right. 1958

We all remained close to Martha for many years and I remember her being at our house in Rocky Ford, Colorado. She lived in Walsenburg, Colorado and later in Pueblo, Colorado. I remember her commenting one time that "I am older now than my mother was when she died." Her mother died at the age of 45, when Martha was only nine years old. Her mother's birthday was the same as mine, Nov. 8.

Martha was very excited when she met Otto Espander, a widower in Walsenburg and they were married May 8, 1970 when Martha was 50. But sadly, Otto passed away June 9, 1971. Martha lived in Pueblo the remainder of her life. She died August 17, 1996.