The oldest of the Fromherz clan, Mom was born on Dec. 9, 1911, in
Corvallis, OR. We don’t know if she was born deaf, but it was not
discovered until she was 1 or 2 yrs. old.
She
entered Oregon State School for the Deaf (now known as Oregon School for
the Deaf) at an older age since Grandma & Grandpa so wanted her to be
normal & didn’t want to send her away for school. In my travels as an
interpreter, I have met a few people who went to school with Mom. They
tell me she was a very sweet person and taught many how to sew. She also
helped to supervise the younger children. I don’t know how long she was
actually there, but it wasn’t very long. She went back to public school
where the teacher had a big mustache that made it difficult for her to
lip-read him. She finally gave it up, never completing her education.
She was good at lip-reading & had just enough hearing to enjoy music & to
be aided by a hearing aid.
Mom loved to sew & crochet.
She made all my clothes when I was little. I didn’t appreciate her making
them when I got old enough to care how I looked because she would always
dress me very old fashioned. My clothes were always to long or to big
(for me to grow into). So, that’s about when I learned to sew for myself.
For some reason she never liked
the name of Clara. She was called Jody in her younger years and later
went by Josephine. Her favorite color was green, and I mean to the point
that nearly everything she had was green. She dressed me in it so much
that one of my best friends recalled my wearing a lot of green when she
first knew me. A funny aside was when this friends mother passed away
(that’s not the funny part) she wrote a poem about her growing up years.
In this poem, she wrote about when she got to know me. She writes:
. . . There’s a new
girl now
She’s quiet & shy,
nothing much like me
Her hair is blonde
and long with curls
And she dresses in
odd shades of green…
What was so funny is that what I was
wearing to the funeral that day was a dark green suit. We had a good
laugh! I met this friend when Mom decided to leave the Catholic Church.
This was not an easy decision for her to make since she had been raised a
Catholic. The problem was that she would go to Mass, but could not
understand what was being said as in those days there were no
interpreters. Dad attended the Assemblies of God where a woman could sign
& would interpret the services for dad & others. For a long time mom
would take me to Mass & then walk to Dads’ church to attend that service,
eventually, only going to the Assemblies of God Church.
Mom always loved Jesus & I
remember her playing Children’s records with songs that included “Jesus
Loves Me”, “Jesus Loves Even Me” and more. I still have these records.
Backing up in time---Mom was
introduced to Dad by a deaf couple that lived in Lebanon. The husband
knew Dad from Idaho School for the Deaf. He was not a Catholic, but the
priest felt that because of their special circumstances, being deaf, it
would be okay to be married and so they were on June 4, 1946, in
Corvallis, OR. Mom was 34 and dad was 39. They lost 1 baby before having
me on May 23, 1950. I was named Jeanette Marie Reed, but Mom called me
Jenny because she could say the name. I was born by C-section & at the
same time, she had to have a hysterectomy due to tumors in her uterus. We
both nearly died. She wanted to have more children. She never really
understood why she had to have this done. Everyone tried their best to
explain it to her, but because of the communication barrier, she never
came to understand. In those days, the general philosophy was that the
deaf should not learn sign language. Their families were discouraged from
learning it as well. As a result, only basic communication happened, but
not much of any depth or importance. It was also common that anyone with
any kind of disability not be allowed to have children. Given that, she
thought she could no longer have children because she was deaf & there was
no convincing her otherwise. She believed that until her dying day. It
caused her great emotional grief. She couldn’t wait for me to give her
grandchildren. She would say to me, “Hurry up have baby must married
first”. She didn’t want me to wait as long as she did to marry & have
kids. I’m sorry she wasn’t there when I did marry at 27 & later had two
children. She would have enjoyed them. I’m glad that at least dad was
here & that the kids got to know him since he was living with us at the
time they were born.
Moms English seemed broken to
those who read what she wrote. She was very self-conscious of this &
would not write very often. What she was really writing was in American
Sign Language which has since been proven to be a real language with it’s
own syntax rules different from English. Dad, on the other hand, wrote in
pretty good English so he would do most of the letter or note writing.
The flip side was that he was not very good with his hands when it came to
making or building things and mom was, so they really complimented each
other with their strengths and weaknesses.
Mom discovered she was diabetic
sometime in her 50’s, but was never on insulin. She was on pills & had to
watch her diet. I’m not sure how well she did at keeping it under
control. I don’t know if blood sugar testing was done in those days, but
she didn’t test hers.
She passed away very suddenly
on June 30, 1972, of a massive heart attack. It was a shock to us! She
was 61 yrs. old. I was only 22 at the time.
I’d like to end Moms story with
a poem that Aunt Mary Gerding wrote the day mom died. It sums it all up.
Thomas
Burt Reed
by
Jenny (Reed) Jackson
The oldest of the Reed family,
dad was born on Oct. 21, 1906 in Palisades, CO and later moved to New
Plymouth, Idaho. They think he was born hearing & became totally deaf at
the age of two by rheumatic fever which also left him with a heart murmur.
He attended Idaho School for
the Deaf in Gooding, Idaho where he graduated, I don’t know what year, but
I would guess around 1924. He was not allowed to sign & was supposed to
learn to lip-read, but he failed at that. It was common for kids to sign
when the teachers weren’t looking so he learned to sign anyway. I have
also met some of his school mates in my travels and they tell me how quiet
he was, but a leader and a hard worker. He was a good role model to the
younger students. As with Moms family, his family was discouraged from
learning to sign, which they regretted years later. Whenever we would to
visit on our vacations, he and his sister and mother would write pages
upon pages of notes back and forth.
After graduation from high
school, he went on to attend Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., the
only liberal arts college for the deaf at that time. I think he was there
about 3 yrs., but then had to go back home as it was during the depression
and his sisters wanted to go to college. His parents couldn’t afford for
all of them to be in college, and again, because of the common thinking of
those days, probably thought it was more important for his “hearing”
sisters to go than for him. Dad was always a good sport and never seemed
to resent the decision. The education he got did him well in any case.
He had a good understanding & command of English. He was an avid reader &
loved to keep up on the news. He would read the newspaper & then watch
the news on TV, matching what he read in the paper with the pictures being
shown on TV. It was a wonderful day when closed captioning came to be, as
he could read on the TV what was being said. Then there was a signer on
KGW morning news. The world has opened up for the deaf with all kinds of
new devices such as special telephones, baby cry lights, flashing
doorbells, 2 way pagers, and much more.
Dad was invited to visit an old
school mate in Lebanon & was introduced to Mom. I don’t know what year
that was or how long they courted before marrying. If anyone knows please
tell me.
After marrying, Dad got a job
as a janitor at Lebanon High School; later it became the Junior High
School. He worked there until retiring in 1970 or 71. The school gave
him a big send off with a student assembly giving him a standing ovation.
I wished I could have been there, but I didn’t even know about it until
after the fact.
Dad had a rough year that last
year at the school because he’d had a heart attack. It became hard for
him to climb all the stairs in the school. He lost a lot of weight, which
he really didn’t have to lose. You’ll notice how thin he was in their 25th
anniversary picture. He did recover and gained his weight back and did
very well health wise right up until the day he died.
Dad lived alone for several
years after mom passed away. He did pretty well for himself. I lived in
Portland, but would try to visit him as often as possible.
He was so happy when I finally
got married! A year later, he sold his house and moved in with us. I
felt better having him with us. He loved his grandchildren & they loved
him! Garrick, my oldest, learned to sign with him and could sign his
first 2 word sentence before he could even talk! Kelly, on the other
hand, would not sign. She would point or get her wants across to him
somehow, but would not sign. She loved him dearly and called him “Grampee”.
Garrick has long since forgotten any sign language, but Kelly has taken 2
yrs. of it at Portland Community College. I don’t know that she will ever
do anything with it, but a least she has a better understanding of
deafness, the language and the culture, and has an appreciation of what I
do as an interpreter.
The December before dad passed
away, his 2 remaining sisters came to visit. I was told later that after
they left they commented that Dad looked the best they had ever seen him
and that he would probably out live them. That was not the case as he
passed away on February 16,1989. He went peacefully in his sleep sometime
in the early morning hours at the age of 82.
I hope I haven’t just rambled
on, but have instead given you a snapshot into their lives. In closing, I
would like to say how grateful I am to have had them as my parents and the
heritage they have given me in deafness and in deaf culture. I’m happy to
serve within the deaf community and to be there as an interpreter for
those who need communication to take place.
