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MARSHALL -- Originally, Naomi Yaeger wanted to write a book about her mother's nursing career.
"She told my brother and me that she had a terminal disease, so I decided to formally interview her by asking questions and recording her answers," Yaeger said. "She had had an exciting career as a public health nurse. When I had been a young woman, she had animatedly told me about her days, but when I formally interviewed her, she talked with not much emotion in her voice. After a while she leaned toward me and said, 'Do you know what I'd really like? With her eyes sparkling she said, 'I'd like a story about my childhood.'"
Yaeger said she and her mother then embarked on recounting her mother's days as a child in southwest Minnesota during the Great Depression.
Yaeger and her husband Terry Larson will be at the Marshall-Lyon County Library at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday where she will discuss her book "Blooming Hollyhocks: Tales of Joy During Hard Times." Larson will perform songs from the era on the banjo.
"Blooming Hollyhocks" is set in Avoca and Slayton during the Great Depression and World War II and is a narrative nonfiction book based on family stories, interviews, and historical research, Yaeger said. Yaeger’s mother grew up in Avoca, and her father grew up on a farm northwest of Slayton. All four of Yaeger's grandparents lived in Murray County. Her maternal grandparents owned Minehart Hardware. Her grandfather, Russell Minehart, was the depot agent in Avoca and was also on the school board.
Yaeger said her mother talked a lot about her childhood when she was a kid, so most stories were not new to her.
"But I did get to understand her better," Yaeger said. "She told me how she was quarantined for scarlet fever when she was just 3 years old. I figured that type of isolation for a young child taught her how important it was to stay close to her siblings and make friends easily."
There were some stories that everyone in the family had heard and agreed on, Yaeger said.
"Like the time she (my mother) and her sister and younger brother went for an unexpected boat ride in a slough in Avoca," she said. "The boat didn't belong to her family, and they had no business getting into it. Her father had to leave work and walk into the water fully clothed to rescue them. The only item he removed to hand to his wife, was his railroad pocket watch, which was valuable and needed for him to make a living as a depot agent. This story got told over and over because every member of the family was there, and it was scary. For days afterward townspeople would tease them, saying 'I heard you tried to go for a ride,' in a mocking voice. This embarrassed my mother for the rest of her life."
When Yaegher's mother was preschool age her older brother Jimmy was hit by a car in Worthington.
"He was hospitalized. He almost died. It was at that time that his mother, Winifred, prayed to God and said she would dedicate his life to God if he lived. Jim grew up believing that he was supposed to become a minister, and he did become a Methodist minister," Yaeger said.
When her mom was young, she didn't have running water, she had to use and outhouse and carry water by pails in the morning and they didn't have electricity, Yaeger said.
"But that didn't mean she wasn't happy," Yaeger said.
Yaeger said she experimented with titles for the book.
"At first, I wanted to call it 'Tales of the Great Depression,' but when I tested that name, people reacted negatively to it ... like it was going to be a sad, gloomy book. The story is about joy, resilience, humor, faith, family, and community despite hardship."
The reactions from cousins and second cousins, extended relatives and Avoca townsfolk has been positive, Yaeger said.
"Readers say it reminds them of the stories their parents told," she said. "Often after an author event people will stay to tell me stories of their own family. My husband plays the banjo, and many enjoy hearing the old time folk songs."