♥༺✿♥✿༻♥

In Loving Memory of My Grandmother

ʚ❤ɞ Angel Baby Boy Heck ʚ❤ɞ

♥ Grandpa Frank ♥ Grandpa John ♥ My Dad ♥ My Furbaby Willie

♥༺✝︎ She Loved The Angels ✝︎༻♥

Blessings of Love and Eternal Peace

✝︎ ♥ My Mom's Precious Mother ♥ ✝︎

As a loving gesture my Grandma Katherine would give wild violets from her moss rock garden pathways.

My grandma used art to depict her life's journey thus the influence of my love of art.

As my mentor, she said, "Don't love something so much that you can't ever bear to let it go." We were in her home. I was age 15, as she handed me three beautiful works of art.

1. A young woman wearing a lovely shawl

2. A woman on her knees head in hands crying

3. Farmland of cows

Father: Karl Keimig

b.d. June 2, 1857 Germany

d.d. March 23, 1941 Mindelheim, Germany

Full German Cemetery Unknown

Mother: Katherine Anna Herman Keimig

b.d. February 14, 1857

d.d. October 10, 1935 Mindelheim, Germany

Full German Cemetery Unknown

♥ Wedding Anniversary May 7th, 1924 (1st Husband Frank) ♥

My Biological Grandfather

Frank Was Her First True Love

Parents to:

Son Baby Boy Heck (linked)

Daughter (My Mom)

♥ Wedding Anniversary December 24, 1929 (2nd Husband John) ♥

My Adopted Grandfather

Parents to:

Daughter Joan (linked)

Her Four children

Son living

His Two children

In the photo Great-grandmother Katherine is possibly the person standing to the far left. Great-grandfather Karl is the man in the middle. My grandmother Katherine is the girl to the far right.

Keimig was her maiden name. She was from a well to do family. Her father was the Bürgermeister of Mindelheim, Germany. Mindelheim was surrounded by a city wall, with an entrance to the castle. She was raised and went to school under strict Catholic rule, along with 5 siblings. She was the eldest.

As a little girl her ears were pierced. My mother never had her's pierced. My mother always told me no to piercing my ears. Around my senior year, I finally had them pierced just like my grandmother's.

As she was becoming a young woman, she rebelled against corsets and wore them upside down. She was given the opportunity to continue on with an upper level education or be adventurous and go to America. At the age of 17, in 1911, she immigrated alone to America from Bavaria (Bayern), Germany with one small and one large trunk and never saw her home country again. It became financially impossible. Money she kept saving to visit home had to be used for family expenses. About 20 years ago her son visited Germany and found her parents home still there (photo is posted). The lower half had been turned into a shop. The owner was just leaving on a vacation and invited him in for a tour. My grandma as a little girl was kindly remembered, by the elderly woman across the street.

She was a well educated woman. She knew refinement, wealth, integrity and was humble about her beginnings. She wanted to make her own way in America and was proud to be here and became a citizen. She was earning her wages as a housekeeper. Her employer would bestow upon her extravagant gifts, such as a beaded handbag, as to which she had to accept with grace.

According to the 1920 census in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kate was age 25 and a boarder in the household of Walter J. Arimond (85339827), along with his wife, her dear close cousin Agnes Arimond (85339826). As the miles would come between them, years of letter writing between the Arimond family and Kate would take place to keep them close. (The Arimond's daughter Mydelle M Arimond Baker (85342735) wove fabric for the movie, "The Robe" and 'her' husband Mainerd Virgil Baker (85342703) was involved in the production).

On May 7th 1924 was the loving union of Frank Arthur Heck and Katherine Theresa "Kate" Keimig. They were to then reside in Vancouver, Washington. Through this loving union they brought into this world a boy and girl.

November 20th 1927 my grandma Katherine gave birth to a perfect beautiful boy and she held him in her arms. He was compromised by the umbilical cord, becoming their ✝ American Angel ✝ Their little light in the sky.

The burial of their baby boy was on the property of their home place in Vancouver, Washington. Shortly after she was with child again. Suddenly, Frank took ill from a sickness caused by his profession as a butcher and passed away. Frank was given a Woodmen of The World Funeral. My grandma gave birth to their second baby posthumously.

Her husband Frank (my maternal grandfather) had served in WW I. He was a member of Woodmen Of the World (WOW). There is a Ritual Of The Woodmen book to follow protocol for funerals. The Woodmen are highly protective over their Sovereign and the unveiling of monuments. They provided the unique log shaped marker, referred to as a treestone.

Laid To Rest Twice ✝

My grandma Katherine had their infant son exhumed from the property of their home place. Their infant son was placed in with his father Frank at the time of the unveiling of his coveted WOW burial, to be together forever. There is no marker for their baby. Only a memorial page on Find A Grave.

My grandma throughout her life always spoke fondly of my grandpa Frank. He was her first true love. I know my grandma never stopped loving him ❤❤

She answered an ad to be a housekeeper. The ad was put out by two Dutch brothers, John and Lane(sp)? Haak who owned a dairy farm in Auburn, Washington. She was immediately hired. Apparently she got along quite well with one of the brothers named John. She never cared for the other brother Lane.

On December 24, 1929 in Seattle, King County, Washington was the loving union of John Haak(*note) (the aforementioned dairy farmer) and Katherine Theresa Keimig Heck. John with much love adopted Katherine and Frank's baby (my mom, a rainbow baby born posthumously). My mom never found out she was adopted until she was age 12. Through their union they brought into this world a girl (Joan linked) and a boy. For most of their lives together they resided in the picturesque town of Enumclaw, Washington. When someone in her family or anyone else she knew had passed away in Germany, she would receive a black death envelope in the mail ✝

❤ My grandma was fluent in english, well spoken without a german accent. Her english spelling and grammar was impeccable She was a sage mentor to many, especially to me, her granddaughter. My dad was often deployed. It was a two hour round trip. On those overnight visits, I would miss my soldier daddy. So, she sat me down at her writing desk, to show me how to write Love Letters. With her favorite turquoise ink, fountain pen in hand, her gift of writing, her kind loving thoughts, that is what I miss. Eventually the finish wore away on her writing desk where she placed her writing paper. She would take us for hikes up to Mount Peak to the Ranger's station, a lookout tower. We'd go swimming in the community pool called Pete's. I called it peach. Her home was modest but, she also had an open three car garage, with two cottages. I was five and walked into her bank of ivy and was crying to walk out because my brother said there were snakes at my feet. (My studies of the german language, unfortunately was a different dialect as hers.)

❄ ❅ ❆ When it was snowing ❄ ❅ ❆ My grandma would tell us..The angel's are having a pillow fight ❄ ❅ ❆

She did not have any domestic pets, other than feeding a stray cat. Heavy attention was placed on community bartering, making their community quite self sufficient. Such as, the beekeeper was disabled. When my mom was in high school, she did her part in helping out to drive his delivery truck. Her younger sister worked on the bee farm too. We have saved some of his beeswax candles. There was always an exchange of something somewhere ❤

Due to hard times, she had to be very resourceful. She never compromised her integrity. In gratitude, I am blessed that she is my grandmother.

There was an interesting container next to her bedside (art deco, round 5w x 3h) with chips of black licorice. They were shiny, hard, looking like opaque gems and a bit bitter. I was the only one who shared in her taste for this fine licorice. She taped my name underneath the container so I would receive it after she passed away. She taped names under many of her belongings, as to which she felt these items had a special meaning from her to that person. She carried a supply of Butterfinger candy bars in her black handbag for the kids.

⊹ ⟡ Stille Nacht ⁺ Heilige Nacht ⟡ ⊹

She loved this song. The copy of her handwriting is a beautiful font where she wrote out the song Silent Night in german. When I was a child, we all learned to sing it in german. She had a record player with records of German music, it was fun. She had a church with a steeple, about a foot tall, covered with fluffy snow and sparkles. Inside was a music box that played ♪ Silent Night ♪... Grandma told the Christmas story of what would happen to naughty children in her town. When she was little, there was a knock on the door. The door was opened. Her brother Max was grabbed, put in a sack and taken away down the street. He always eventually returned. I don't know when and we were never told what happened to Max. I was too scared to ask grandma questions. This happened a number of times to Max. This is not folklore.

Grandma made some German cookies that were so very hard because they had to cure and had to have many months of a shelf life. I still have her green handled gingerbread boy cookie cutter. My mom didn't like grandma's recipe for her cookies because she used black strap molasses and the cookies were so hard and bitter. This I looked forward too because she made them special for us and they looked so pretty. The gingerbread's at Christmas were stacked in fives, wrapped in cellophane, tied with a pretty ribbon into a bow and the final touch was a real silver dollar. Oh, these stacks and stacks glistened under her tree. Something so simple made with love. I loved her German dumplings and make them myself. My baby doll was cuddly, she had the honor of being named after one of grandma's recipe's. Thank you grandma.

I was just a little girl. Whenever we were leaving grandma's house in Enumclaw, after the hugs and I Love You's, she would stand on her porch as we started to pull out the long drive. At that moment she would wave and say, " Machs Gut " (make good). Her brother in Germany named Max, I never got to meet him. I thought she was saying " Max scoot ". I would laugh at her looking from the car window. She thought I was smiling goodbye, oh grandma, I love you xo

I miss you taking my tiny teacup, setting it over upside down on the saucer, then turning it around 3 times (clockwise), then setting the cup upside on the saucer. You read the tea leaves that of course always spelled out my good fortune. I believed you every time, oh grandma! Playing Canasta with you and visiting, I loved it. I did my best that a teenager could do. I know I wasn't good enough to heal your broken heart and the emptiness that was there when grandpa passed away. I could feel it. You were lonely and there wasn't really anyone else around. I know that is partly why you passed away. For a woman who was known for her strength above all, you got tired, you gave up. You told someone you were stopping your BP med, it made you feel really sick. The two of you older ladies knew better. She never told anyone until after you died. I wish you would have told me. I know that you would not want to put that on me, but I needed you. You were my world along with my dad. That morning your curtains didn't open that little bit like every morning. You had an Aneurysm. There was a trust you had in me without saying, you just knew I got it. Your family was clueless.. Your art depicted your life's moments.. I understand.. And I carry on through art, with love.

Grandma.. I fell in love. He was a soldier like daddy. Really wish we all could have shared your soup and some hugs.

❤ You Are Truly Truly Loved and Really Missed

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SIBLINGS: (might not be the birth order)

1. Katherine Theresa Keimig Heck Haak (herself eldest)

•Immigrated to America - Resided in Washington

1st husband Frank Heck

2nd husband John Haak

2. Ludwig Keimig - Germany

3. Karl Keimig - Germany

4. Max Keimig - Germany

5. Margaret Keimig

• Immigrated to America - Resided in California

1 daughter

6. Josephine Anna Keimig Thomsen Moll

Find a Grave Memorial ID: 147448523

1st Husband Thomas? Thomsen

• Went to Denmark - 1 son Tommy Thomsen

• Immigrated to America - Resided in Washington

2nd Husband Frank Moll (no children)

7. Elsa Keimig - Germany

All family research is in progress ...

Held in our hearts ♥

Lovingly,

Your Granddaughter,

PureGrace©2014

A heartfelt thank you to my dear friend Deb for sponsoring my grandmother's memorial.

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RANDOM NOTES OF SOME MEMORIES ...

+ PHOTO AGE 16 GERMANY A BOY FROM SWEDEN CAME TO COURT WITH HIS BUGGY SHE DROVE IT ON HER OWN

+ HER CREATIONS = EVERYTHING IS HANDMADE = FROM RAFFIA / HATS / HANDBAGS / HULA SKIRTS = QUILTS = CANNING = PEACH SYRUP FROM THE PEELS AND PITS = CLIP ON LIT CANDLES/CHRISTMAS TREE = CLOTHES = HER ABOVE THE KNEE WOOL LEG WARMERS FROM GRANDPAS WORN OUT LONG JOHNS = WORE BABUSHKAS = WOOL BRAIDED RUGS FROM EVERYONE'S CLOTHES = FAV JACKET BLACK LEATHER = DANCING ON THE GREEN SCANDINAVIAN FESTIVAL KING COUNTY WA = FLAT COTTON RAG RUGS WOVEN ON HER HOMEMADE LOOM = CARDING WOOL = FLOWER GARDENS PATHS OF RIVER ROCK AND MOSS = WILD VIOLETS = FERNS A SPECIES = ANTIQUING/SECOND HAND STORES = FIGURATIVE ART = REUSED CARDS ETC. FOR NOTE PAPER = BELIEVED IN ASHES TO ASHES = INAPPROPRIATE SONG FOR TEENS is WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU FALL IN LOVE ...

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*Note:

Grandma outlived both husbands. Both markers are etched with incorrect dates. I remember her saying, "Oh No, Not Again".

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