| Notes |
- Electa and Samuel had a total of two children per Clella Ruth (Drollinger) Smith November 1995.
Electa Drollinger
Grandchildren's Recollections
Contributed By Glenn E. Sorte · 18 February 2014 ·
Memories by Grandchildren
of Electa Drollinger Bellows
By Sandra Bellows Ewell
November, 2003
"I remember that Kathy was her favorite grandchild, no question.
"When we slept over at her house, she had 2 cots. It was fun to sleep on them.
"Once she fixed me a tomato for lunch and I didn't eat it because I didn't like it. So when it was time for supper, she gave me the tomato again. She didn't waste anything. She would cut her paper towels in half rather than use a whole towel.
"I remember making the lye soap.
"Memorial Day was a big holiday. We all met at her house and arranged lots of flowers and then went to the Payson Cemetery and decorated graves of people I never knew.
"When I had kids of my own, I would try to go up at least once a week. She seemed to love it when I came but it was sure difficult to find the time. She had a marble tower where marbles rolled down different levels and the kids loved it. It was so noisy! She spent most of her time in her chair watching TV and I think she was glad to have someone else to watch, even if it was noisy kids.
"When she got old she asked me several times to let her move into our basement. She offered to pay to finish it if we'd let her live there. I felt very guilty, but we were not home very often and she would be alone far too much. In reality, she could not have gotten up and down the stairs.
"She had a very rough 10 years prior to death with emphysema, probably from asthma or being around others who smoked, I'm not sure. She was on oxygen the last few years and struggled to breath. She coughed a lot and her feet were always very swollen.
"The last time I helped her bath, it was all I could do to get her out of the tub. She was almost dead weight and wet and slippery. I finally got her out by wrapping her in towels and lifting more weight than I ever recall. I think she was so humiliated and I cried because I just couldn't keep it up. After than, Aunt Arlene took her to live at her house. I think she just did bed baths after that.
"Her health continued to go downhill and finally Aunt Arlene had to put her in a nursing home. I went to see her one night and she had fallen on the floor in the bathroom. I helped her back to bed and she wouldn't speak to me. We went down one more time at Christmas and she wouldn't talk to us then either. She was angry at being there. Dad went to see her every day.
"I went to work one Saturday and one of the nurses said to me, "I'm sorry about your grandmother." I asked her what she meant and she said that she was in ICU on a ventilator. I thought, "Why was she there because none of the family would have wanted her on a vent?" Come to find out, she got worse with pneumonia and the nursing home could not find dad or Arlene, so they just sent her to the hospital, not knowing who else to call. She had been there almost a day. I got a hold of Dad and Arlene and they made the decision to not prolong life support and let her go. She died about 12 hours later. It was hard for Dad to sit in her room and watch her fight for breath. Hard on me too.
"Grandpa Bert (Sanford) was diagnosed with advanced bone cancer and went to live with his daughters. He was later placed in a nursing home in Provo. I went to visit and could tell he wasn't going to live much longer. I asked Grandma if she wanted to go see him and she didn't. I kept encouraging it and finally convinced her that I could get her there and back. She was so sick herself, she didn't think she could make it. Finally she gave in and I took her over. It was the last time they ever saw each other and I think she was shocked to see how bad he looked. He looked like a skeleton, barely alive. He was very surprised to see her and they held hands and cried. I left them alone for a 1/2 hour (so I could go cry myself) so I'm not sure what they talked about or if they really even said anything. When we went to leave, I helped her get out of the wheelchair the best she could and him wiggle over to the side of the bed so they could kiss goodbye. It was an emotional experience but I was glad they got to see each other one more time.
"Grandma taught me to cross-stitch and embroider. She gave me a blue checked table cloth the size of a card table when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. I decided to embroider all the flowers in black. It must have taken 10 to 15 years to complete but she seemed pleased when I did. One of my favorite things to play with at her house was the sewing cards. And I liked her to read to us.
"Grandma always fed all the left over scraps to the cats. They were wild cats but would come up to the back door to get the food she gave them.
"She had an old wringer washer for years. She would hang clothes out back on the line.
"Her house was always neat and clean and organized in a practical way. I remember she kept the toaster on the kitchen table and I thought that was cool because they could make toast as they wanted it without getting up.
"She grew tulips in a big round area in her back lawn. When she couldn't take care of them anymore, she dug them up and gave them to me. I planted them along the side of my house and they bloomed for several years and then they finally all died. But when they bloomed I always thought of her.
"She always had a current temple recommend, even when she was home bound. I remember the bishop coming to her house to interview her.
By Kathryn Bellows Sorte
November, 2003
"I had never eaten Cream of Wheat before. Grandma Bert fixed me a bowl and it tasted so good I ate and ate and ate. I ate so much that I threw up afterwards! I still love Cream of Wheat and always think of her when I eat it.
"Tomato soup with oyster crackers - she would give us lots of those little oyster crackers so we would eat the soup.
"She used to make her own lye soap. She would collect grease drippings in a can on the stove and use it to make the soap. When she got it into square blocks of soap, she would grind it up in a meat grinder and use it for laundry soap in her old wringer washer. I was always afraid of that washer - I had heard a story about someone getting their arm caught in one.
"She would always read to me. We would sit on the couch and read story after story. I still remember the story of the little mouse who went into the junkyard and something fell on top of him and he was trapped. It was my favorite and she must have read it to me a hundred times.
"I remember sleeping over at her house and laying in bed listening to the sound of the train whistle. It was peaceful and calming to me.
"She used to kneel by the bed to say her prayers. That was the first time I had ever seen anyone do that.
"I always felt like I was her favorite grandchild. I thought she was beautiful and she always had fun toys for us to play with. When we would go there, she would get them out of the top shelf of the cupboard and we would sit on the front room floor and play while she sat on the couch and watched us.
"She had snap dragons in the front yard. She showed me how to carefully put my fingers inside and make the flower open and shut like a little mouth that was talking. I thought that was so cool. I still love snap dragons and think of them as "Grandma's flowers."
"I always heard stories about how frugal she was. I have been told that money screamed as it left her fist because she was so tight with it. Funny, there are a few people who would say the same about me!
"She taught me to be honest. At the grocery store once, I found a little toy like you would get in the cracker jacks box or something. It was on the floor and I picked it up and was going to keep it. Grandma offered to buy me a doughnut if I would put it back.
"There were tons of stray cats that would hang around her house out back. She would throw scraps to them. Sometimes I would sit out there and sing to them, thinking that they would come to me if I did. They never came close.
"We used to play in an old barn that was behind her house. It was full of wheat. She showed me how to chew up the wheat germ like gum.
"The last time I remember Grandma being well was at Nicole's baptism. We were living in Texas at the time, but came to Payson for the baptism so family could be there. Grandma came. She had a beautiful silver gray wig that she was wearing then and I still thought she was so pretty.
"When she was old and sick, she stayed at my parents home for awhile. She was usually at Aunt Arlene's but sometimes mom and dad would take her for a month to give Arlene a break. She was on oxygen and really didn't do much but sit around and struggle to breathe. I do remember she would sit and fold the towels.
"When Grandma died, my mom helped clean out her house. She found an old fashioned cream pitcher with a slip of paper in it that said, "For Kathy Bellows". She called me and said, "Here's your treasure from Grandma." It made me feel good that she had left something just for me. It really is one of my treasures.
By Anita Bellows Spainhower
November, 2003
"I remember kneeling on the back of her couch looking into the kitchen while she made bread, waiting for the big gob of bread dough she would let me eat.
"I loved having tomato soup there because she always had the cute soup crackers. Tuna sandwiches always had butter on the bread instead of mayo too. I can't remember if I liked it better, or at all, I just remember it was a distinguishing thing about her house.
"I loved the little storybook she had where the mouse ended up living in a pretty little tea cup in the garbage dump, I think. I just loved the tea cup page.
"One time when we slept over, we jumped in her bed together, and when she turned the lights out, I remember she got out of bed and kneeled on the floor to say her prayers. I think it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone actually do that. It felt sort of sacred.
"I loved going back in the barns behind her house where that big barrel of gold fish was. (Why was it there?)
"And I remember her house always smelled like her house. A while ago, Nicole said to mom, "I love coming to your house 'cuz it always smells like a grandma house. It made me smell Grandma Bert's, just like I was there again. It was cool.
"She didn't care too much for Phil at first, but we went to her house on the Halloween that he wore my cheer leading outfit. He had pigtails with big ribbons . . . the whole shebang. She laughed and laughed, and told me, "He must really be OK."
"Phil remembers her trying to give us that big green chair when it broke, 'cuz she just knew he could fix it.
COMMENTS: 1
By Ann Rochelle Dennis Erickson
9 March 2014
I've loved reading your stories!
I remember when my mom, Emma Lovina Drollinger Dennis, lived in Spanish Fork. This was probably around 1973 or so -- I would have been around 20 years old. She told me how pretty her Aunt Electa was, and we ended up going to see her. I think she lived in Payson. I wish I could remember more about her -- I just remember thinking that, yes, she really was pretty, considering she was old (in MY mind, anyway!) I guess I hadn't considered that anyone past the age of 30 could be considered pretty until then.
She had some silhouettes of girls on her wall that I admired and I thought her living room was nice. Had I realized I'd never see her again, I'd have taken better notes! You girls are so lucky to have known your grandparents!
I was raised in California and only got to visit Utah about once a year. I never got to meet my Grandpa Allen Drollinger (he passed away before I was born), but Grandma Nancy D. was such a sweetheart and I loved her! In her later years, as her dementia increased, her kids moved her things from her home and she would spend 1 month with each of her daughters. She usually called my mom "Ardy" or "Pearl".
Grandma made it a point to not get in anyone's way, even though we tried to convince her that she wasn't intruding. She must have thought the coast was clear one day when I saw her walk into the dining room. Her gait was unsteady due to terrible bunions and varicose veins. Also, she couldn't see without her thick glasses, and as she approached the curio cabinet (sans eyeglasses), she must have caught sight of her own reflection because she stopped in her tracks and said, "Oh, excuse me!" and trotted back into her room.
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1906 - 1991 (84 years)
