GRITTY MAMAS: WIDOWED WITH 13 CHILDREN
Elizabeth Jeppson. My Dad’s mother. She had 13 children and had always said she wanted a “baker’s dozen.” She lost Phillip a day or two after he was born. He was induced too early and his lungs were underdeveloped. Grandma Jeppson had humongous babies and back then, they thought if they got them out sooner, it would be better. She lost Helen Marie to SIDS at six months old. She lost her son Reed to a Mysterious disappearance. She lost her husband to suicide a week before Christmas with ten children still at home, my Dad being a senior at East High at the time. And then she again dealt with tragedy when my Dad was diagnosed with bone cancer and given three months to live, even after amputating his leg. And even after all that, she handled it with “Grace, beauty, and strength.” I think about her a lot. Her loneliness, the burden she was forced to carry, her worry and despair for her missing son, the unfairness of losing two infants, and the heartache from a husband gone too soon. I admire this woman. Her tenacity and will to move forward despite so much grief. Her ability to “always remember the good times” as she is known for saying after the passing of her husband. She helps me look for the good. She helps me press forward. If she can do it, I can do it. I carry her DNA. I am a Jeppson. Share this with the woman “full of grit” in your life. #tragedy#suicide#disappearance#jeppson#grief#loss#infantloss#13children#grit#grittymamas