Big Bertha

(1990s)

[This is a fragment intended for Polly's memoirs, probably written in 1990s.]
It was during the first world war [1917-1918] when our family, father, mother, I and little brother lived in the country near Taycheetah, Wisconsin. My father, a landscape gardener, regretted not being able to take a factory job nearby at Fond du Lac, but he was loyal to my mother, Minnie [dying of TB], and never left her side as long as she lived.
We got along by hiring a hired girl, Bertha, and got her only because she spoke only German that we could understnd, although [she also spoke] another Romanian language none of us had ever heard before.
When we needed groceries, my mother would write a list and send Bertha with it to the nearby Post Office--Grocery, telling her to bring back the small articles and leave the 50-pound sack of flour for one of the men to bring home later. Deliberately misunderstanding.... [the fragment ends here but you can guess the rest].