integrity is paramount

8/13/2015

Margie when in college

Margie Stucki

Memoir

A mother's dream for her family

History of Sunflowerhill

Civic Recognition

Castle Valley Comments

Quotes

Mother

Family reunions

Once in a Lifetime

Journal

Mom is a Home Economics graduate from the University of Utah and studied under renown advocate for families, Virginia Cutler. When Cutler arrived at the University of Utah's Home Economics Department, she became the head of the department. Mom remembers "She was a wonderful person and extremely creative. I learned so much from her. She encouraged us to keep learning all of our lives. She wanted us to have an upholstery class, so she would go learn from an upholsterer, and come back and teach us. I upholstered a chair for my project. We would have fancy dinners where we would learn not only about cooking and preparing food, but about serving and entertaining. We had things like finger bowls with little flowers floating on the water. I studied, worked hard and got good grades, especially in home economics." It paid off in a big way for all of us. Our upbringing in Salt Lake City, the choice experience in Castle Valley, and continued emphasis on family and home was largely influenced by Mom's opinions and many talents and abilities.

When I was a young man in Castle Valley and around 13-years-old, I faced the typical challenges of the teenage years: peer pressure, need for acceptance, fitting in, self-esteem issues, courage, and other significant emotions. Sometimes, when school was particularly challenging, I would feign sickness so I didn't have to go. Realizing that I would have to face-the-fire eventually didn't deter me; at least for one day, I had a bit of a reprieve, and I found security and safety among my family. Other times, I helped around the farm like you hear about in former times when the children were needed to complete important seasonal work at home and on the farm. I look back at some of the challenges, which seem silly now, but were so very significant then. For example, my mother made me a sack lunch and placed it in a brown paper bag, which I faithfully took to school despite the oddity it was at the time. No one in the visible schoolyard took a sack lunch but me. We didn't even have a lunchroom or table and chairs where I could sit out to eat my midday meal. So I found a spot on the school grounds, and I began to consume the lunch made by my mother. That was hard, especially in middle school. But what made it even more challenging were the things I would find in my lunch: carrot sticks, an apple, a piece of cornbread, and perhaps a cucumber—not the typical fare you might share with your friends. But I knew of the sacrifice it was to provide these things, so I ate them faithfully nonetheless. Now decades later, I've come to realize the importance and significance of my daily diet then. Dad woke up very early to milk the cow from which the butter and cheese were made. Mom baked delicious whole wheat bread for my sandwiches and labored diligently on our farm to provide cheese, milk, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other delicious vegetables for my lunch. Now, nearly half a century later, I still relish the memory of those carefully-made sack lunches. They meant I was loved, safe, well cared for, and protected--the very emotions I hope to share with my own children today. All because of Mom.