Jay Tegeder

Nephew

 

Comments

It's amazing how few people are here today. In fact, the church is mainly family and a few friends and neighbors. However, that's what happens when you live to be 90 years old. Aunt Barbara out-lived her contemporaries. If she had died twenty years ago, the church would have been packed. I think we're all glad that didn't happen though since we all cherished her.

I feel fortunate to say I had her as my Aunt for 48 years.

The Tegeder family get-togethers at my grandparents house, her in-laws, were always special. All of the Aunts and Uncles would show up on Sunday afternoons with the kids. We kids would sit around and listen to the stories.

Barbara was a fabulous Aunt. I can attest that she was a fantastic Godmother too. As a kid, I thought her purpose as a Godmother was to give me presents on my birthday and at Christmas. I got a lot of presents from her back then. Later of course, I learned the real purpose of a Godmother.

One of the challenges for Aunt Barbara was keeping Uncle Bob in line. Uncle Bob had a descriptive way with language. Aunt Barbara could be in one room talking to her sister-in-laws while Uncle Bob talked to his brothers in the next room. If he happened to use hell or dam in a sentence, you could hear Aunt Barbara yell; "ROBERT!"

Barbara had a tremendous wit. At Jenny (her granddaughter) and Corey's wedding, I told Aunt Barbara that I would come out and visit her in a few weeks. She told me; "You better make it quick because I won't be around much longer!" Luckily, she lasted another year and a half including her fabulous 90th Birthday Party.

While Uncle Bob gave all of us the tremendous gift of family history, Aunt Barbara was with him every step of the way. She traveled to Europe with him as he sought out manuscripts about our family from the past.

With Aunt Barbara's passing, another chapter closes in the Tegeder Family History. Her descendants will write the next chapters.