Had he lived this long, my grandfather would have been 108 years old today. However, he did not.  He died in 1989, a week prior to my 21^st birthday. My dad had planned a celebration of my impending adulthood for months, if not years.  We were going to have dinner at a famous five star restaurant in New York City.  We had gone shopping the previous May in Florida. We had been visiting my grandparents during one of those rare trips I had to see them.  During the shopping trip, we had purchased a suitable beaded black gown for my night on the town. My grandparents had just celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary and various members of the family had flown in to celebrate.  Months later, my grandfather had a massive stroke.  My grandmother made the choice to remove him from life support and he died soon after.

Roscoe Schiele Yegerlehner was an amazing man.  He was born on a rural farm in western Indiana in 1904.  His father, John Henry Yegerlehner, was the grandson of Swiss immigrants.  His mother, Lovina Jane Schiele, was the daughter of more recent German immigrants (1851) and a family of German religious dissenters who came to America in the 1730s.  I recall being told that the only way John and Lovina could speak to each other was in English.  Lovina’s German and John’s Swiss German were different enough that they could not communicate. John and Lovina had a large family.  My grandfather was the second from the bottom of seven; six boys and one girl. In a biography that my grandfather wrote of himself, he stated “that he didn’t know what sex he was until he was in high school”.  All the boys were expected to do work on the farm as well as housework in the house.  By all indications, my grandfather belonged to a large, loving family.  One thing that he did not like, however, was his name.  I am not sure where the Roscoe came from.  There seems to be an abundance of names that start with “R” in the family; Ralph, Raymond, Ruth & Roscoe.  His middle name was his mother’s maiden name.  As an adult, he was R.S., never Roscoe.  He adopted the nickname Jake early and used it throughout his life.

Although my grandfather was a raised on a farm, he did not stay there.  In 1922, he graduated from high school.  He became a teacher and taught at rural schools in his native county.  In 1929, he married my grandmother, Gladys Foster. On the 1930 census, my grandparents were living on the Yegerlehner family farm in Clay County, Indiana. They moved to Terre Haute soon after.  My uncle John was born in Terre Haute in August 1930.  My grandfather also began his studies to become a doctor.  He graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1938.  After graduation, the family moved to Kentland, Indiana where my grandfather was to practice medicine for many years.  He was the proverbial country doctor.  He made house calls and delivered countless babies.

In 1942, my grandfather answered his country’s call.  He joined the Navy.  As a doctor, he served in several hospitals throughout the Pacific.  After almost two years, he returned to finish his tour of duty at a hospital in Missouri.  When the war was over, he returned to Kentland and his medical practice for a total of 28 years.  He later moved to West Lafayette where he worked at one of the teaching hospitals.

My grandparents finally retired and moved to Florida in 1978.  I remember several trips to see them in Sarasota.  During one of the first trips we made to Florida, I got to go to Disney World.  My grandparents made time to see quite a bit of the world, before and after they retired.  They were always giving us souvenirs from their world travels.  I remember that my grandfather really seemed comfortable with the grandkids, probably from all his years of being a teacher, and then a general practitioner. He was always goofing around and trying to make us laugh.

And in case you were wondering, I did get to celebrate my 21^st birthday in New York with my dad.  It just got postponed a couple months.  The gown with the spaghetti straps that I purchased in Florida was not really appropriate to autumn weather in New York.  I had to go shopping again!  I got a fabulous black velvet cape to complete the ensemble.  If you look in my closet today, both the dress and the cape are still part of my wardrobe. They are a poignant reminder of the year that I lost my grandfather and the year I officially became an adult.

©2012, copyrighted & written by Deborah Sweeney