Tag: grand mom

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

She taught us how to age gracefully

Audrey Fixmer

Audrey Mettel Fixmer died on January 22, surrounded by her family. She touched many lives in her 86 years of life and made significant contributions to the Catholic Herald as author of the “Grand Mom” column for 23 years.

Twenty-three years ago out of the blue, I got a phone call from Audrey Mettel Fixmer.

She told me she had retired from teaching English and was interested in writing for the Catholic Herald. We chatted for awhile, and I found out that she was a member of St. Joseph Parish in Fort Atkinson and seemed very devoted to her faith.

Besides that, she told me she had 11 children (one died as an infant). Wow, I thought. That was amazing!

I told Audrey that we didn’t have a regular column in our paper dedicated to senior citizens. Since she was 65 years old at the time, I thought she was qualified to write about that age group.

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Audrey Mettel Fixmer

Continuing education in our senior years

“Guess who is using a calculator these days?” said my husband Bob, as he set down his suitcase just inside the front door. “My mother!”

No! Not the woman who stubbornly maintained that not while she had the brains God gave her . . .

This was back in the late 60s or early 70s when Bob was traveling on business trips that rarely took him in the vicinity of his parents’ Illinois home, and now he recounted the happy visit when he was able to give them one of the calculators his company issued and teach them how to use it.

“I wish you could have seen how delighted they were with their new ‘toy’ after I taught them how to use it.”

Pleasant reminder

I was reminded of that incident recently when I visited my son Tom and his wife in Colorado.

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Audrey Mettel Fixmer

Antiques of years past are blessings of today

It’s hard for me to believe it now, but in my younger years I cared nothing about antiques. I foolishly figured that anyone who furnished a home with them simply couldn’t afford new stuff.

Now, although I still don’t have them in my home, I find myself fascinated by anything with a “history.”

I can’t wait each week to watch public television’s Antiques Roadshow. I guess you could say I didn’t care for antiques until I became one.

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Audrey Mettel Fixmer

Learning to cook with ‘appeal’

Grandmom column by Audrey Fixmer

My late husband taught me two important lessons about cooking.

When I confessed to him a few weeks before our wedding that I knew nothing about cooking (zilch!), he advised me in his typical philosophical manner, “There are two ways to look upon the challenge of cooking: one as an art, which requires creative talent, and the other as a science, which requires a cookbook. Get a cookbook.”

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Audrey Mettel Fixmer

The joy of watching grandchildren grow into adults

Grand Mom column by Audrey Mettel Fixmer

It’s common knowledge that grandparenthood is a well-earned reward for surviving parenthood.

You get all of the benefits of having an adorable child without the pain and responsibility. No pain of childbirth, no up-all-nights. No having to feed and clothe them.

Grandparenthood at age 40

I entered that lofty stage of grandparenthood at age 40. I remember rushing to the hospital nursery to see Jeff, my first-born grand, and announcing to the nurse, “I’m the baby’s grandmother.”

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