The first time my dad saw my mother, I would like to imagine that he was immediately smitten and thought she was “absolutely” the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. I don’t know that because Dad hid whether or not he noticed beautiful women. After all, he was a man of the cloth; wore a turn-around-collar; had a calling beyond physical desires. Similarly, I can only imagine what my mother thought the first time she saw my father. I know nothing of her history with men prior to Dad. She had more than a full time job attending to the needs of four boys and her husband. She held her counsel on such matters. Having heard the story several times, however, of their first meeting, I know their meeting took place in the middle nineteen-twenties on a bus in Spring during Holy Week somewhere between Minneapolis and Albert Lee, Minnesota. I can imagine, however, that it must have been “love at first sight”. What else could explain it?
Tim
ROY & IDA - LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT?
About half way back and seated next to a bus window was Ida Brewer. With a scholarship offer to Columbia University in New York for post graduate study in Goethe and Germanic languages in her purse, she enjoyed the view of the Minnesota farmland and roadside flowers. Four feet ten inches tall, she sat on the edge of her seat with the her shoe tips barely reaching the floor. After two years of teaching English in a small North Dakota town, Peewee, as her university friends called her, must have been all a twitter with anticipation for life and study in New York.
Across the aisle sat six foot three inch Roy Olson, a recent graduate from a Lutheran seminary with a diploma in his breast pocket. His legs stretched awkwardly from the seat into the aisle. He paid little attention to the passing countryside and thought about preaching the gospel to his first parish in a small town north of Minneapolis.
Next to the aisle and between Ida and Roy, a balding, paunchy man leaned back comfortably against the seat watching the southern Minnesota farmland slip by and stealing glances at the young woman next to him. Then he looked across the aisle and noticed that a young man was also looking in Ida’s direction. The older man heaved his bulk into the aisle on that swaying bus and said to the young fellow, “I think you might like to sit next to this young lady.”
It was appropriate that my mom and dad should meet while traveling, for each had a wandering and searching spirit; Ida was already the first in her family to graduate from high school and the University of Minnesota and become a high school teacher; Roy had taught school, interned in Alaska and graduated from Luther seminary in St. Paul. Each had already broken the bonds that kept their friends and siblings home to tend the farms of their childhood.
These two, however, had agendas that should not have included each other. Ida looked forward to Columbia University in New York; Roy looked forward to ordination and preaching the gospel in St. Cloud. Intellectually, Ida’s education raised questions; Roy’s education gave answers.
What is unquestionable is that Ida’s and Roy’s relationship, started on a chance meeting on a bus and culminated in marriage, four sons and a shared destiny.
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Lovely post! Sound like the hand of Providence to me. 😊
So did she go to Columbia?
Joyce, Thanks for asking. No, she didn’t accept the offered scholarship and became a pastor’s wife. She did have a close friend (Theo) from the UM who I’m fairly sure did continue her education. Mom corresponded with Theo throughout her life. Ah, I wish I had those letters. Tim
I’ve never heard this story before, touching . Thanks for sharing. Lee