Aunt Esther

Aunt Esther survived my uncle for a short while. Whereas uncle Carl was somewhat of a problem to the staff at the home, aunt Esther was an uncomplaining inmate, thankful for the care and concern given her. Like my uncle she was always sort of a thin person, not tall or as stooped in old age as my grandmother was. Like uncle Carl she never married.

Early in life she functioned as a cook in the Hubbell household in Des Moines. The Hubbells were rather wealthy, and I think politically active, family in Iowa. I seem to remember being shown a rather imposing home belonging to the Hubbell family, which may have been for all I know where she worked.

The Hubbell menage resembled a little the staff in the TV show “Upstairs, Downstairs.” The Hubbell servants may have been an even larger group than in the TV show. For example, aunt Esther cooked only for the servants, there was a second cook for the members of the Hubbell family itself. I was never aware of her working in Des Moines, so it must have been before I was born or when I was quite young.

When I first became aware of her she was working at the Deaconess Institute in Omaha. It is not clear to me what the precise nature of the functions carried out at the Institute but it did involve nursing care for elderly persons. My aunt Hulda (actually my grandmother Strand’s sister) spent her last years there. Nor do I know what aunt Esther did when she worked there. Apparently while there she suffered a nervous breakdown, perhaps from overwork, but my sister says it was also associated with her menopause.

Following her breakdown, aunt Ester spent a period at the Iowa institution at Cherokee for the mentally disturbed. I can sort of recall the goings on in the family at the time of her trouble and her enrollment at Cherokee, also the occasional trips the members of the family made to see her there. But I do not remember jsut when they took place. Perhaps in the late 1920s. She was discharged from Cherokee I think in a not completely recovered condition, but her convalescence proceeded well in the calm atmosphere of my grandmother’s house.

She never resumed any work outside the home and she lived out her days either there or in the home in Madrid. She did housework — like cleaning— all at home but not much cooking. As long as she lived my grandmother dominated the cooking activities in her kitchen.



Esther Peterson, date unknown

As aunt Esther aged she became increasingly afflicted by arthritis which crippled her hands leaving them gnarled and misshapen. Indomitable as always she engaged in what she termed her therapy, namely playing on the piano. She must not have been able to play much, certainly later on as her hands got worse. I seem to recall that it was she who had piano lessons early in the Peterson household, and it was she who instructed her younger sisters in piano playing. I know my mother played the piano, and of course aunt Ruth did; whether Lillian or Laurine had the facility I don’t know.

As I’ve written my aunt Esther lived out her last days at the home in Madrid. She died less than a year I believe after uncle Carl died.