Prairie Posts, Meeting Laura, Part 3.....

TIDBIT:

This past weekend, Laura Ingalls Gunn went to visit her grandmother and came back with a surprise for me to share with you next week! In the meantime, pop over to her blog here

and see the treasures she brought home!Welcome to the third installment of the interview with Laura Ingalls Gunn, fourth cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We will be picking up where we left off in last weeks post. I considered breaking this post up into two parts as is it long but due to a death in our extended family, I will be away from the computer. I am aware of the new delayed posting option but chose to wrap up this portion in one full post. So grab your favorite cuppa, a comfy seat, and read along with me.

Back in California, LIG returned to working in the medical insurance field and attending community college, taking a few classes here and there as time and finances allowed. Laura still had the strong desire to complete her education no matter how long it took. Laura and her cousin, her Aunt Jan’s son, remained in close contact and he and his wife helped her out with childcare.

Education was an important factor in the lives of the Ingalls family. Ma, having taught school, desired for Mary to become a teacher. While living in some of their prairie homes, Ma home schooled her daughters. The Ingalls girls were taught the discipline of studying hard and the value of an education. Even Mary, who was blind, excelled despite her handicap in her academic pursuits at the school for the blind. Ma and Pa knew that education opened up opportunities so they encourage academic excellence.

LIG began at this time to build a stronger relationship with her maternal grandparents. Building relationships with both sets of her estranged grandparents took much time, effort, and patience, for which Laura was rewarded. Her maternal grandmother passed away about 10 years ago and sadly her grandfather ended up with Alzheimer’s. Laura lovingly assumed his care until he passed away last November.

Ma and Pa Ingalls were faced with an adverse situation also, when their daughter Mary went blind. The support, love, and presence of family determination to give the best care and opportunities they were able to give strengthened their family. LIG experienced this strengthening bond as she lovingly reached out beyond her own past pain, offered forgiveness, acceptance, and loving kindness to her family.

LIG’s life took another turn when she least expected it, she met the love of her life, her current husband, Eric. Laura’s cousin’s wife was graduating from nursing school and invited Laura to the ceremony. Her cousin had a single neighbor whom she thought would be a prefect date for the event. Laura was little reluctant but went anyway. Her courtship story is hers to tell but I will say that she was swept off her feet.

Her intended was in the military at the time and he was being assigned to Crete in Greece. Laura thought this would be the end of the relationship but the surprise was on her. He invited her to dinner and presented her with a gift bag with a map of the world on it. Inside was a teddy bear dressed in Greek clothing with a surprise hiding under her hat, a diamond engagement ring. He was offering her the world, to become an important part of his, to travel with him to Greece as his wife, and to begin a new and adventurous life.

Laura Ingalls Wilder experienced a sweet courtship with Almanzo as he escorted her to church, brought her home for Christmas when she was teaching in a far away school, going for buggy and sleigh rides, and attending socials. In both cases, LIG and LIW, had to make swift decisions due to outlying circumstances. For LIG it was the impending departure of Eric. For LIW it was Almanzo’s family swooping in and taking over the wedding plans. Both had initial concerns but were able to put them aside and begin their married lives.

Soon after LIG was married, she, Eric, and Alyssa moved to Crete where a new culture and foreign way of life set in. Laura and Eric always choose to live off base in the community to truly experience the local culture. While in Crete Laura had her own pioneer experiences. At times she would have no running water or electricity, and also home schooling her daughter. At times she was filled with despair. She said at these times she would look over at her elderly neighbor who had no indoor plumbing and think to herself, “If she can, I can!” Her determination would set in and she would once again persevere.

After LIW was married she once wondered how Ma had gotten everything done, especially after her daughter, Rose, was born. Sometimes she too would despair, she would remember Ma and Pa and all the hard labor they had to put in creating their homestead and raising their family. She would remember all their misfortunes and how they always picked themselves up and carried on. Endurance under duress is another trait in the Ingalls family.

More of LIG’s traveling dreams were coming true as they moved to Germany. She also had the opportunity to visit Italy, France, and Austria. As she and her family settled in Germany, Laura went to work at the USO office at Landstuhl Hospital. The USO provided paperback books, phones, televisions, arranged bus trips, etc. Laura worked as a tour guide on the bus trips which allowed her to absorb and learn more about the culture while educating others as well.

The Ingalls trait of always being ready to move and explore was once again showing up in LIG’s life just as it did in LIW’s. Laura and Almanzo packed up their daughter, Rose, and set out for the land of the Big Red Apple, Mansfield, MO. This is where they would homestead. Along the way, Laura recorded their trip, absorbing new sights, sounds, and local culture, making note of all she saw and experienced. This was part of the educational legacy she would leave to us in her writings.

It was in Germany that LIG experienced a miracle, a direct answer to prayer. She and Eric were told they would be unable to have children. Circumstances had placed her in the right place, at the right time, connected with the right people. Through her job at the USO at Landstuhl Hospital, Laura became friends with Dr. Nah whose daughter was a specialist in Homburg. Ian, their miracle boy, as Laura calls him was born at the military hospital in Germany. Ian’s name was chosen carefully. It is Gaelic for John, meaning gift from God.Photo: Laura, holding her miracle boy, Ian, Eric, and Alyssa

While settled in Germany, LIG and her family made friends with village neighbors who lived across the street, Charlie and Jean. Jean was an interior designer and became a mentor to LIG. She noticed Laura’s keen sense of color and design style. She invited her to apprentice under her in the design field and Laura accepted. Thus began a new career path for her.

From Germany LIG and her family moved back to the US to Georgia, just outside of Macon, where she enrolled in a program for interior redesign. After completing her course, she opened her own design firm. Also during this time, she learned the local newspaper was looking for a columnist to write about things of the home. She made a submission and was hired to write a weekly column called “Home Keeping.” LIG also did special assignments and interviews for the weekend edition about community happenings. Laura immensely enjoyed both these creative outlets and her journalism dreams were birthed.

After LIW and her family settled in Mansfield, she began her writing career for a local farm family weekly publication, the Missouri Ruralist, years before she ever thought of writing the Little House books. For sixteen years, from 1911 to 1927, her columns appeared in this country journal. LIW wrote about agricultural issues, country living, and innovations in rural life. Sometimes she even reminisced about her own pioneer girlhood. In her steady flow of poetry, columns, features, and in interviews, Mrs. A. J. Wilder became the predominant female voice of the Ruralist. It seems the talent for writing is also another family trait.

After twenty one years of military service, LIG’s husband retired and accepted a job position in Arizona where the couple and their two children currently reside. Their daughter, Alyssa, is pursuing education in the design field herself and desires to become a fashion designer. Son, Ian, is happy go lucky little guy, a miracle, and blessing to his family.

Laura is a creative spirit and some of her personal favorite pastimes are reading, sewing, cooking, and scrapbooking, making jewelry, creating art, writing letters, and shopping for antiques and browsing flea markets. She is also enjoying her new pursuit of blogging, which she considers an outlet for her design sense and her writing. It is a way of memory keeping for herself and her own personal fulfillment.

Laura has her hands full juggling family, home, church, her design firm, giving her presentations, giving art lessons to children, charity work for those with ovarian cancer and battered women’s shelters, and returning to her educational pursuits in interior design and architecture. How does she do it all? Her answer is, “By grace.”

One of the things I asked Laura was what is of personal importance to her in preserving her heritage and how is she doing that. Laura’s focus is to honor the memory of LIW by picking up the torch, stepping into her shoes, and sharing her stories as well as her faith and values. One of the ways she has done this is to carry on the Ingalls name. Both she and her children have the middle name of Ingalls as there are no direct descendants of the LIW’s family, only cousins.

One of Laura’s deepest passions is to support children and to offer them encouragement and hope. She says the children need to know that they matter and that anything is possible. This spurs her on in giving her presentations as well as fostering creativity and gifts in children through art lessons.

Laura believes that each person on this earth has a story to tell. LIW knew she had a special family and she wisely captured their stories within the pages of her books. In her presentations, LIG tries to point out that the Little House books are full of stories of hope and triumph, tearfully Laura says, “Hope can come in a book. Laura’s books do that. After all, the greatest book ever written (the Bible) offers hope.” Laura Ingalls Gunn is representing her heritage of the pioneering Ingalls family well.

Laura contributes the successes in her life to placement, people, prayer, and her faith in the One who gave her hope. She has often found herself in the right place, surrounded by the right people, at the right time, and covered in prayer. This could only be attributed to the orchestration of her Heavenly Father as she relies on faith and He blesses her in return.

I found Laura Ingalls Gunn to funny and engaging as well as humble and full of faith. She never pretends to be perfect, admits her shortcomings and mistakes and does her best to live a life pleasing to God. I was truly inspired by her story and the parallels in both Laura's lives. Both Laura’s had their dreams brushed aside, both had their education interrupted, they faced struggle and hardship as well as experienced joy and blessing. They both share a spirit of perseverance and determination. They share strong faith and family values. Their heritage is steeped in tradition. They both have the gift of connecting with people. They are strong women, survivors, yet both remain humble. Each has been a pioneer in her own right and the Ingalls legacy lives on.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about the modern day Laura and the parallels between her life and that of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Next week I will be sharing Laura Ingalls Gunn's family tree, giving you information on various family members as well as sharing some family stories, and photos. I hope you will join us for the final Prairie Post!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy