Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter)

This image is of my dad's handwriting. At the top he wrote his and Mother's namesakes, followed in age order by Clara's (the oldest daughter) through mine (the youngest of the six living children*). (Click on the image to magnify it.)

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Last year on Father’s Day, June 20, 2010, Daddy (Deane Gunderson), age 91, fell. The doctors weren’t sure if the fall was a result of, or caused by a subdural hematoma. He passed away on July 1st.

I thought for today’s Father’s Day post I’d honor my dad and mom (Marion Gunderson) with a nostalgic yet fun tangent. After all, Daddy told us kids umpteen times that when he was gone, we weren’t to shed any tears. Of course, that is kind of hard to do, but he enjoyed life to the fullest and expected us to do the same. Therefore, I’m posting what I think is a fun diversion, but still in the vein of remembering Mother and Daddy with fondness.

The image above is my dad’s handwriting recording his namesake as well as the namesakes of my mom and us six kids. (As indicated in the above image, my mother was named after her Chicago Cubs fan Aunt Marion whom I posted about here.)

Ten or twenty years ago I read Mother’s version explaining after whom I was named. Apparently she and Daddy remembered differently. Daddy’s explanation (which he told me at least five times in the ten years before his passing) makes more sense. I’m going with it!

Because his writing on this sheet is on the reverse side of his 2009 Christmas card mailing list, I know Daddy wrote the information sometime after November 2009.

I don’t plan to do an uninterrupted series regarding the names given to each of us kids. However, over time, for at least some of us, I plan to post regarding our namesakes. When I do, the first will probably refer to oldest sister Clara’s names. I have something up my sleeve. At that thought, I think both Mother and Daddy would be pleased. Mother’s smile would be so happy and Daddy’s eyes would be twinkling.

With a heavy heart, yet so much gratitude, Happy Father’s Day, Daddy.

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*Christian was born about two years after I was. He died within minutes of his birth.

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

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