June 4th, 1913

Ninety-six years ago today, Elsie Marie Galbraith was born in a log cabin in Idaho. She was a playful child, enjoying hopscotch and jumping rope. One day while with the neighbor girl Ruby, they decided to play in the car. The car started rolling backwards down a hill and Elsie's father came running out of the barn to catch the car and stop it just before it got to the edge of a steep cliff. Ruby and Elsie were hiding on the floor of the car. After they were safe, they both got a good spanking for their mischief.

Elsie truly did walk to school in the snow: she remembers the drifts being so deep that she would walk over telephone lines. She worked hard as a teenager, thinning sugar beets with a short-handled hoe, stacking hay, and doing housework, getting paid $3-$5 per week. Being an Idaho girl, she picked potatoes in the fall alongside her mother. They were paid one or one and a half cents per basket.

Elsie raised nine children. Her husband, George Hill, passed away on her youngest daughter's second birthday. That youngest daughter is my mother, Julia. One of my favorite stories my mom tells about her that highlights her sense of humor is when she was working in a potato warehouse and she sneezed so hard that her teeth shot out of her mouth and onto the conveyor belt. Luckily she grabbed them before anyone noticed. Another funny story that hits close to home (because I make mistakes like this all the time) is the following conversation my mom and grandma had on the phone:

Grandma: The flowers are looking so beautiful in my yard. We put some commoner on them and it's working well.

Mom: Some what?

Grandma: Commoner.

Mom: Commoner? I don't know what you're talking about.

Grandma: You know, COW MANURE!

I knew my red hair didn't come from my parents.

All of the blankets that I owned until I was 16 years old had her hand in it: she loved to quilt. For my eighth birthday she came to Colorado and helped my mom surprise me with a homemade jean quilt. We went to Royal Gorge, which is a beautiful area of Colorado. This was back when it cost $4 or $5 to see the world's highest suspension bridge. Now it's $26 per person. I'm glad we took pictures because we're not going back (although I don't have one with the bridge on this visit) . . .

Grandma would come and visit us when she could. Denver is a long way from Idaho, but she made the trip many times. This picture is when she came for Christmas in 2000. (Side note: Nathan is so tiny!)

And this was one of the last times I saw her. My mom and I went to visit her in the fall of 2002. My mom and I were starving and looking for a place to eat. When we asked her opinion of what she wanted to eat, her response was: "I want a strawberry shake." So that's what we got her.

Elsie Marie Hill passed away on September 4, 2003. We miss her but are happy to have had her for so long. I wish I had more pictures, especially of her with my mom.