My Mother's Childhood

Yesterday, all the way up to the cities and some of the way home, I listened to a tape that my cousin recorded on April 21, 2000, of my mom and her brother, Emil, talking about their childhood. That was right before Mom got “Dementia.” It was nice to hear Mom talking and remembering. Some of the things below came from that conversation.

Emma Bessie Prantner was born July 26, 1917, at her Great Uncle’s place near Seaforth, Minnesota. She was the third child of seven born to Emil and Emma Prantner. Her twin brothers had been born just the year before. Milo went to live with their maternal grandparents. The other twin, Jerome, died at the age of nine from Angina. Three more brothers came after Emma. Emma started school at the age of seven. Although Emil & mother Emma could speak both English & Czech, they only taught their children to speak Czech. When they started school, they couldn’t speak English. Emma was very sad because the kids at school called her Fat Emma (after a candy bar). Emma was a skinny little girl! When Emma was 11 years old, her mother died after giving birth to Elsie. Emma remembers that her mother was very sick when she was pregnant with Elsie. She remembers her coughing up blood. Mother Emma gave birth at home (on a farm they were renting), with her mother (Grandma Smetak) delivering the baby. Baby Elsie died one day after her mother died. In those days, they would put the dead in a casket right in their living rooms. I remember Mom telling me that her mother and sister were in the same casket in the living room. So by the age of 11, my mother had lost her older brother, mother and only sister.

Emma’s dad put ads in the Farm paper for housekeepers (when they lived by Seaforth and Glenville). By the sounds of it, they went through A LOT. They may have had one good one, Anna.

When Emma was 14 years old, her dad bought a farm near Glenville, MN. Somewhere around that time, her grandmother (must have been her paternal step-grandmother) told her that Emma and Emily were the same. Well, she liked Emily better so when they moved, she told everyone that her name was Emily. Turns out that her birth certificate said, “Baby Girl Prantner,” so when she needed a copy of her birth certificate (after she was married), she could put whatever name she wanted on it. She put Emily Bessie Prantner. Personally, I think that Fat Emma candy bar had something to do with it!