Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Pa was pretty lenient about that kind of thing. Ma wasn’t so easy going. When she said, “No.” she meant it and there would be no arguing with her. You never asked, “Why not?”

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I did once. Joe Long called and asked if I could go to the show with him. He was older than I was and I was about 15 or 16 at the time. I was on the phone with him and turned around to ask Ma if I could go to the show that night.

She said, “Who with?”

I said, “Joe Long.”

She said, “No.”

I told him I couldn’t go and put down the phone. Then I turned around and said to Ma, “Why can’t I go?”

She said, “He’s too old for you.”

I shot back, “Well, I’m not going to marry him! I’m just going to go to the show.”

Man, she gave me a whack and I never asked again!

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Tell them about the time you got kicked out of school and she had to go up and get you back in.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - A bunch of us including Mary Lou went driving all over instead of going to school one day. We got back just in time to get our ride home. Well, somebody saw us leave in the morning and tattled to the principal. So, in the meantime, before we got home, they had called to tell Ma.

When we got home, she was at the front door and said, “How come your face is so red?”

I said, “It was hot.”

She replied, “Hot where? In school? You weren’t in school! Professor Ayris called.”

I said, “Well, everybody skips once in a while.”

The teacher said we couldn’t come back to school unless our parents came with us. So, Ma and Lou came up with us.

Well I had skipped before one time to go to Tecumseh so I had to tell her, “Remember that other time when I was sick and didn’t go to school?”

Those two days I skipped were the only two days I missed in four years of high school.

Mary Lou, your mother brought this up at a birthday party one time. She said, “Yes, I remember that. I told Mary Lou that if she ever did that again, she wasn’t going back to school! She could do housework.”

In the end, they let us back in and we didn’t even have to make up our tests or anything. We got our same A’s so it didn’t mean anything in the end.

It’s funny that you don’t remember all the days you went to school, but you do remember the days you skipped.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We went to Cleary College one day with our class. There were about 5 or 6 of us in our car. When the rest of them went back to Dundee to school, well, we didn’t follow.

We just rode around all day. We stopped and had some pop and stuff and just had a big time. Just like you, we got back just in time to catch our ride home.

Next morning, we got called down to the office. The principal told us to all  meet down by the huge French doors in the front of the school.

When we got there, they had glass cleaner and rags for us. We spent the next several hours washing those windows. I never washed so many windows in my life!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We would have gladly washed windows in exchange for not telling our parents. I thought Pa would have a fit and make me stay home from school when he heard about it. All he did was start calling me, “Skippy!” 

Ralph Heiden - My generation has some memories of our grandparents but, like I said in the letter, Grandpa was 74 when I was born so there is a lot of his life I do not remember.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He was 52 and Ma was 49 when I was born! I don’t remember Ma and Pa without grey hair.

Pat (Bicking) Klass - I remember Grandpa more than Grandma. We were up to their house to play more than anything.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - The kids weren’t up there to talk with their grandparents.

Ralph Heiden - What illnesses did Grandma have toward the end of her life?

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I think it was mostly her heart.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Her death certificate calls it arteriosclerosis. Hardening of the arteries.

Ralph Heiden - I vaguely remember something about a lung problems.

Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - Yes, she had bronchitis.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Her one lung was almost completely calcified.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Seems like she would get pneumonia about every year.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - They had to put a tube in her lung once to draw out fluids.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I took her to Ann Arbor one time and they came out and said, “Your mother has one lung completely calcified and the other one is starting to go. I would say your mother has about 6 months to live.”
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Ralph Heiden - When was that?

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - It was about 15 years before she died!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I took her to a Toledo heart clinic. When he got done examining her, he called me in the office. He showed me an EKG and it had a real thin little line. He said, “Now that string, if that breaks, she is gone. So don’t let her do much work.” After that, she would lie on the davenport a lot and avoid the heavy work.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She would get awfully tired so easy.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Sometimes she would want to bake cookies but she would get them started and then be too tired to finish them. But that was 15 or 20 years before she died.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She evidently had pleurisy or something and every year she would get a cold. And it seemed like her lungs never cleared up. That calcified in there.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Remember they tapped her side and put a tube in to drain off that excess.

Ralph Heiden - I had a similar problem when I was 18. My lung collapsed and I had to have a tube inserted to drain off the excess fluids.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I can remember that Dr. Marin would come over when she had the colds. He would start her off on sulfa drugs. Then a brown spot she had on her face would turn a bright red. Then he would switch to something else. Then he would switch to terramycin and finally clear it up.

I asked him why he always started with something else before switching to terramycin which always worked. Why not start right out with terramycin?

He said, “Well, I always start with the weaker stuff before moving up to the more powerful drugs.”