Written, by her
Family (Richard James Nielsen, Bernice Pont Nielsen)
November 4, 1984
Born: Lewisville,
Idaho; January 23, 1906.
Parents: Harry Stratford Robinson and Mary Julia Myler.
Blessed by: Orin M. Myler, her grandfather in March, 1906.
Brother: Stratford Myler Robinson, born Feb 10, 1908, died Feb
12, 1908.
Her father served
a two year mission when she was just two years old leaving Geraldine
and her mother alone to care for themselves. Geraldine grew up on dry
farms most of her early years. She had many vivid memories of life in
the country and of her close relatives. She remembers always attending
church.
Later her family
moved to Salt Lake City where her mother and dad both found employment
and she attended the LDS Highschool and enjoyed her teen years. This
is where she met Gordon Nielsen and began to date. They fell in love
and spent many good times together with family and friends. After Gordon
moved to Los Angeles to find employment. She missed him, so got permission
from her parents to go to L.A. to be with him. They were married soon
after her arrival at a justice of the peace in Riverside.
Because Gordon could
not find work they moved to S.L. City. But that was not a successful
move so back to L.A. they went. They were expecting their first baby
and were worried that they would not have a home or finances to be able
provide for this new family. Richard James was born Oct. 30 1925, Frank
Gordon was born June 24, 1927, Jack Robert was born June 27, 1929. The
family always had a pet dog or two and the boys enjoyed the companionship
of these pets. Several litters of puppies were born and raised and enjoyed.
Gordon worked as
a sheet metal worker and was aIways able to find employment in construction,
even during the worst part of the depression. The family moved to Marin
County while the boys were still very young. And Gordon opened his own
business. Money was scarce but the family has many fond memories of
life in several homes during these years. During 1934 there was a polio
epidemic and Richard and Jack was stricken with this disease. Jack recovered
but Richard suffered painful crippling effects from this disease.
Later, during a
short stay in Smithfield Utah, most of the family suffered from Scarlet
Fever and Frank was permanently affected by this disease. Richard endured
many operations to correct damage the polio had done to his body. He
had to spend years being tutored by teachers because he had missed so
much school.
Gordon's widowed
mother, Josephine lived with the family off and on many years.
Carolyn Patricia
was born June 21 1940 in L.A. Geraldine was very happy to finally have
a girl. World War II broke out and Gordon was needed in the construction
industry. Frank became ill because of the damage from the Scarlet Fever.
He passed away at age 15 after a long painful stuggle with this disease
while being cared for by his mother and grandmother at their home.
In 1945 the family
moved to Oroville Ca. and purchased 80 acres with an old house, barn
and other old buildings on it, Again, Geraldine had hard work ahead
for her while the family remodeled the old house, tore down the barn
and other buildings. The house did not have plumbing or electricity,
so, for a while the family used a generator and an outhouse, Animals
that were raised on this farm included cows, horses, pigs, chickens,
ducks, turkeys, sheep, and goats.
Several Nielsen family reunions were held at this home in Oroville,
many of them to celebrate Josephine's birthday. Family members as far
as Utah and L.A. attended these gatherings.
Geraldine enjoyed
attending church in Oroville and was especially fond of Relief Society
activities where she helped make numerous quilts during all-day homemaking
meetings. She was always a dedicated visiting teacher and supervisor.
She was a skilled seamstress and cook. Her joy was complete when she
could fix a delicious meal for company. A typical day for Geraldine
was to rise early, prepare meals, feed the animals, water the cow's
pasture with long portable sprinkler pipes, weed the garden, make bread,
do laundry with a ringer-washer, sew or mend and prepare dinner. Life
was hard work and full of new experiences for Jerry. She had to help
butcher and preserve many of the animals that they raised. Each winter
was especially difficult because Gordon was often laid off work because
of the weather.
In the early '60's
Gordon and Jerry built a new house, complete with Mexican brick fireplace,
doing most of the work themselves. By this time all their children were
out of the home.
One of the highlights
of their life was a trip they took to Mexico by car. They traveled throughout
the country for several weeks. Another trip was taken to Florida by
train to visit Richard and family.
Their favorite activity
was going camping to do hunting and fishing in the beautiful Sierra
mountains. They never camped in conventional campgrounds but would just
make a camp by a stream somewhere in a favorite place.
Jerry's life took an abrupt change when Gordon passed away in 1971.
She could not take care of the home without his help and she was deeply
depressed by his passing. So she moved into the home of Richard and
his family in Bakersfield. She resided with them for two years and then
moved into an apartment by herself.
She enjoyed visiting
with her family and never overlooked any family member's birthday. This
was quite an accomplishment as she had three children and their spouses,
fourteen grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren to provide gifts
for. Another remarkable accomplishment was her goal to hand-make quilts
for each of her grandchildren as they were married and to make quilts
for each new grandchild.
Geraldine attended
the Temple in L.A. several times each year and always looked eagerly
for more opportunities to do work for the dead. In recent years she
served in the name extraction program which she enjoyed very much even
though her health was very poor. She suffered from congestive heart
failure, arthritis and other health problems.
