(Submitted by Sharon Brunelle)
No mother was ever loved more!
On September 22, 1905, Ireta Taylor, one of the Lord’s sweetest daughters to have ever lived, was born in Millville, Utah, in her grandmother Jeppson’s home.
On her eighth birthday, she was baptized in a swift, cold stream, and confirmed the next Sunday morning.
That same year, she was awarded a “Liberty Bell” metal for highest scholarship and citizenship in her class. She was so excited; she ran all the way home. Her favorite classes were French and History.
Her brother Charles remembers her generosity, as a child. If “Reta” had a penny, she would go to the store, and sometimes she’d choose a marshmallow, banana, or licorice whip, or sometimes a handful of jelly beans. In any event, as her playmates waited outside the store, she’d tear her purchase in pieces, and offer the jelly beans, and other small bits of candy, and pass them all around. Charles said sometimes her hand would empty and nothing left for herself. She’d just stand there and grin and watch her friends enjoy.”
She grew up in a loving home and has many happy memories. Every morning they began the day kneeling around the kitchen table for prayer. Her dad was a patriarch and she witnessed many miracles and healings.
When she was a teenager, she moved to Ogden, Utah.
On September 17, 1924, she married Lawrence Albert Wahlstrom in the Salt Lake Temple, and two years later, they moved to Los Angeles, California.
She’s been a wonderful mother, raising one son, Steven, and four daughters: Donna, Barbara, Sharon and Linda.
She liked to sew, knit and crochet, but more than anything else, Ireta, loved her family! She loved to gather her family and grandchildren for family get-togethers and dinners.
Everyone remembers her fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. She was always baking pies and cookies. We remember the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread and cinnamon rolls.
Mom loved little animals, especially dogs, cats and birds. She not only took care of her own, but was always feeding a stray cat.
There were always fresh flowers on the dining room table. Mom loved roses and carnations, and she always had a lot of rose bushes. She used to start carnation plants from cutting.
Ireta was a natural leader. She served as a teacher, then as a Primary President in the La Cienega Ward in Los Angeles for five years, and as a Mutual President for fourteen years.
For several years, Mom worked at the Los Angeles Temple which she loved.
In 1962, she was given a very special award for her many years of faithful service. She was given the HONORARY GOLDEN GLEANER AWARD.
In 1974, she celebrated her Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary.
Over the years, the happiest place to be was at Mom’s. Her home was always open for all the family.
Mom has always thought of others first. Her greatest happiness was always found in serving. She was always giving.
She has held our family together in love, and all who know her, love her.
We love you “Mom” with all our hearts!!!
Your Family
MOTHER’S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
Stories from Ireta TAYLOR Wahlstrom, recorded by Sharon WAHLSTROM Brunelle, her daughter, on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 10th, 1992
“I lived on the farm in Preston, Idaho until I was about nine or ten years old, and then I moved to Brigham City, Utah.
(Question from her daughter, Sharon: “What was a typical day on the farm like when you were growing up, and can you tell me some more of your childhood memories?”)
I would get up in the morning and wash my face and go to the bathroom (an outside privy). We had a water pump just outside the back door under a tree. Then we would kneel around the kitchen table chairs (with the chair backs towards the table), and Dad would offer a prayer. When we were older, we would take turns praying. After that, mom would have breakfast for us. A normal breakfast was always cooked cereal, sometimes bacon and eggs or pancakes. Waffle irons weren’t invented yet. Then we would wash the dishes with lye soap. One of us would wash and the other one would dry. Then it was time for our chores. Dad (Grandpa Taylor), and Charles would milk the cows and then let them pasture until the evening, then he would feed the chickens, horses and pigs. Then Charles, (a year and a half older than me) and I would go out and play. There was a stream that ran down through our yard to the pond at the end of our property. There was a big lane of poplar trees that ran along the stream. We would play Indian, and pick red raspberries or currants and squash them on our face to make us look like Indians, and then, we would break off the branches, except for the end leaves that were the “horse’s tails”. We would put chicken feathers in our hair. Mom played the organ, and she let us have the box it came in. We sat it on its side, so we could walk into it, and mom gave us a quilt to put over it. We would pick berries or fruit, and go inside and eat it. We made bows and arrows. You take a young tender stick that you can bend into a bow. One time, Anna, my older sister, wanted us to come in and do chores, and Charles shot her on the arm with his bow and arrow. It didn’t hurt her, but it made her real mad. We made whistles out of the poplar tree. We pulled off the soft green bark and whittled it a little (real Indians made whistles the same way).
Sometimes we would play on top of the haystacks, and see who could push the other one off the hill first. We would say, “I’m the King of Bunker Hill, I can fight and I can kill”, then, we would arm wrestle. I was stronger than my brother Charles, and I usually won. I was a tomboy, but I still loved my dolls. When Charles was busy working on the farm, I would play dolls. I loved my dolls.
In the winter we had so much fun with our sleighs. We would run fast and then fall on them to make them go faster, and then go down icy hills. We always wore big leather goulashes that laced up.
Sometimes we threw rocks and climbed trees. We always had lots of good food to eat and fresh fruit.
We would make homemade ice cream in the winter. We would take a big heavy bucket that was half full of ice from the pond and mother make the ice cream from fresh cow’s milk, with sugar and vanilla added. Then we would put a smaller bucket of the cream mixture into the bigger bucket of ice, and take turns twirling it with our hands. It was fun. It made a lot of ice cream.
Mom always had the house clean for Sunday. It was my job to dust the parlor (like a living room). We always went to church in a horse and buggy, it was pulled by one or two horses. We tied the horses up by some grasses so they could eat while we were in Church. I was so bashful in church. The young kids would sit up in the front with their teachers and Dad was always on the stand.
For the Sacrament, they had a big tall glass and they would pass it down the isle and everyone would take a turn taking a swallow.
At night as well as in the morning, we knelt down around the breakfast table, and in the evening we knelt around on the rug. Dad always said the evening prayer.
When my older sister, Anna had spinal meningitis (a serious disease that can cripple or kill you), everyone thought she would die. The doctor came every day, and then said he couldn’t do anymore for her. Her back and neck curled back until her head and feet touched. She had a high fever. Dad and the family fasted. We knelt around the bed and prayed. Dad pleaded with God to make her well. She got better, and when the doctor came, he couldn’t believe how she was so much better. She had to learn to walk all over again.
Dad made a big raft for the pond, but said we couldn’t go on it unless he was with us. There was a man that dad hired to thin the sugar beets. He left his lunch by the pond. Charles and I found it and looked inside, and there was store bought cookies (like vanilla wafers). We had never had store bought cookies! We each decided to eat just one, and pretty soon they were all gone. So we got on the raft and went out into the pond, and then we couldn’t get back. We got a real scolding.
One time I got the Liberty Bell award in school (Mrs. Stearns class, 3rd grade), for the highest average and best attendance (100%).
I was baptized on my birthday (September 22nd). My dad went to Uncle Will’s (Dad’s sisters’ husbands) house. He had a fast moving stream of water that went into the pond. They measured me with a broomstick to measure how tall I was and how deep they would have to go out in the pond. The water was icy cold in late September. Then I went out into the pond and they baptized me. I was scared to death of water. I had never had my face and head in the water before. I swallowed a whole lot of water. Mom had a heavy quilt waiting for me. I went to my aunt’s house and dried by the fire, and then got dressed and we went home. The next day I was scared to go up in front of the Church and get confirmed.
In school, in the middle of winter, we would have a big sleigh party. We had coal ovens at home and we heated bricks, then wrapped them up and put them in the bottom of homemade quilts. We would sing and laugh and ride all over town.
One time Charles and I were in a buggy with two new horses. Dad had gotten groceries for his grandfather’s second wife (his first wife had died), and Charles and I were in the wagon alone. When he left the wagon to carry in the groceries, the horses ran away with us (about two blocks). Dad came running after us and finally caught them. He sold the horses the next day because he said he couldn’t trust them.
My childhood was wonderful! I wouldn’t trade it for any city kids. We had big fields, ponds, fruit and animals to play with. I had the best parents any one could ever have. Mom and Dad were so understanding. We had so much love for each other. We trusted in God for everything. We knew God would always help us.
