A letter from Wendelin as Grandpa was dying

You know, we inherit the family dynamics we're dealt--we have no idea of the root causes for Wendelin's eccentricity or Anton's moodiness, but artifacts like this letter are puzzle pieces that help to form a bigger picture.

Still, Larry and I often debate the wisdom of including the "not so nice" stuff about the families here--but if we don't, isn't that a form of lying? 
This letter should remind us again that the ancestors weren't cardboard cutouts.  They were as real and as complex as we are.  They tried to do the right thing, just like we do...and they sometimes wrote letters that were full of anger and hurt.  Would we have done better under the circumstances?
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  Wed.   9PM      Jan 19 (1955)

Linda and Rinehart,

What I saw coming for a long time and tried to steer away from happened today.  Shortly after he got up this morning he said he felt a heart attack coming on, he kept getting weaker.  About noon I managed to get a phone call to Mr and Mrs Hale who lived here six years.  They live in Burbank 12 miles away and they came about 3PM.  A neighbor, Mrs Stassi and her brother also came.  After talking things over we put him in the Stassi car and took him to a nearby hospital, 4 of us went with him as he was not able to get in or out of the car.  The doctor gave him a shot and a prescription which we filled at the drug store, took him home, put him to bed and made him as comfortable as possible.  Mr and Mrs Hale stayed here till 6.  Mr Hale will come again in the morning, Mrs Stassi was here a few minutes ago.  She offered to come tomorrow and take him to the hospital if it becomes necessary which would be $15.00 $17.00 a day.  We will avoid that if we can.  He is feeling a little better right now.  I am sitting up with him and

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keep the fire going in the stove.  He said this Eve, he only felt that way once before when he was in Rochester--where life meant nothing to him anymore~.

What you and Rein can do and must do is to write him an encouraging letter, insist on him coming home as soon as he is able to travel, not just the old phrase wish you were here.  I paid all the hospital expenses this afternoon.

Now Linda and Rein, isn’t it criminal to let your dad 75 in that condition travel off 2000 miles away???  Right or wrong I blame you more than Rein for letting him get away from there.  All summer long I sent you warning after warning to keep him there.  Every word of it was completely ignored.  You seem to feel if he is 2000 miles away you are rid of the whole problem--you have plenty of room in the house.  If you don’t want him on the farm or in your house, let him rent a room in St Cloud or Little Falls, but stay in Minn. where he belongs and where

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he gets his money and other help from.  Back there the welfare board is ready to help him if necessary, out here he is on his own.  There is no telling if and when he is ready to travel, but you and Rein will have to do something REAL about it and do it now.

We cannot let this thing end up like Dan Janson ended up in Sacramento.  It would cost more than $1000 of somebodys money.  Haven’t I done enough for you folks???  13 years of steady work would not produce the money I have tied up in the family.  None of you would be in Buckman or St Cloud today without the help from here.  I’ll tell you again, we just can’t afford to let this end up like Dan Janson we just can’t.

Whenever I brought the conversation around to going Home, he said No Good--It’s up to you and Rein to change his mind about that.

We are extremely lucky if we can pull him through so he can go Home.  We are doing what we can here and are getting results.

   10 PM

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So much for tonight more news in the morning.

--Thursday Morning--

slight improvement

That was Wednesday the 19th, but here's the context, from the calendar that hung in mom's kitchen. Little grandpa left Minnesota on the 8th of January, and had a heart attack in San Francisco on the 13th. Mom said he was put off the train because he was ill, so he traveled to LA by bus. Grandpa died at Wendelin's house on Saturday, the 22nd of January, 1955.