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Mindeord om Hans Peter Jorgensen skrevet af hans datter , Jody
Dear Dad
As we contemplate writing this letter, our harts are ooverflowing with so many fond memories, we don't know where to begin. When was our earliest recollection of you ? Perhapps as children it was simply the routine of your leaving our home for work in the morning and returning again in the evening. It may be the feeling of security you gave us as we walked hand in hand down dark road at night. Or just knowing that you were always there when we needed you. And many were the times we needed and called on you! When we had car trouble out on the road, we knew we could call you and get the help we needed no matter what the weather. If we needed more support, sympathy or whatever it was at the moment, we could always come to you and Mom.
Most of all, Dad, our most vivid recollection have been connected with your love of fishing and of the mountains. You and Mom have instilled this love in each of your children, many of your grandchildren and even some of your great-grandchildren! What then could be more fitting than to have all of your children and many of your grandchildren spend tree days in the mountains with you and Mom to celebrate your Gold Wedding anniversary in 1962.
Your love of your family was shown in many ways but none so much as your enjoyment of our family gatherings. Our big family dinners, which of late because of the size of your nosterity, mecessitated the use of a grange hall, were fun for old and young alike. Even the smaller family gatherings such as the shrimp eating contests you har with your grandchildren, were enjoyed and shall long be remembered.
You fed us, clothed us, educated us and loved us. You never were overly demonstrative about your love. But we could feel your love and saw it in the shine in your eyes when we pleased you. We also felt your displeasure at something we had done when you used your big hand to get to the seat of our problems! If at those times we felt you were not justified in discipling us, since having families of our own, we wonder now how you and Mom had the patience you did!
Althrough you were baptized a Lutheran while in Demnark, you never attended church. Some would say you had no religion. And yet you lived and taught us a religion by example. We were taught right from wrong. Your cleanliness, modesty, orderlines and honesty .were all synonomous of your character and your teachings. Your cleanliness carried through to the end when as sick as you were, you always insisted on washing your hands many times during the day and night and always appreciated your baths.
We learned the value of work and the realization that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Your work was always done well and on time. When you worked for someone else, you gave an honest days work. You were honest and fair when you were a potato buyer. The twenty years you worked for the creamery were testimonies to your ability, responsibility and willingness to do your share… even going the extra mile if necessary . Your love of the soil and growing things was evident in the gardens which you and Mom raised to feed your large family. Few people could raise the kind of gardens you did. Not many weed escaped your hand or hoe! This carried over into your farming whether it was for yourself or for someone else. Not many people at the age of 78 could ride a potato cobine and put in the days work which you did.
You didn't talk a great deal about your life in Denmark..perhaps because with the five daughters you har, it was hard to get a word in edgewise! We did learn that you were born on the islakd of Tåsinge in Svendborg County, one of a family og 3 boys and 9 girls. Your schooling there consisted of eight grades. Your great love of fishing probably had its beginning there where you fished in the ocean for edible eels and shrimp. Your equipment for this fishing was a harpoon device with four or five hooks on it. Working on farms milking cown earned you enough money to come to the United States in 1904, when you were 18 years old. Your oldest brother, Niels, was living in Ringstead, Iowa at the time and probably had mich to do with your coming to America. When you arrived in the United States, you went directly to Ringstead where you worked on a farm for two years. From there, you went to Wentworth, South Dakota. Here again you worked on a farm, this time for a man named Henry Wartchow. Again you worked for two years at that job. Coming to Idaho in 1908, you enlisted in the National Guard where you served until your honorable release in 1911.
While working for a farmer who was a neighbor to Grandfather Ephraim Nielsen, yoy were introduced to Carrie Alvilda Nielsen by a girl friend of Carrie's. Carrie was the daughter of Ephraim and Anna Lyman Petersen Nielsen. You courted her and on june 28 1912, you were married in the home that Ephraim and Anna had recently finished building. Since that time you have resided in or near Idaho Falls. To your union were born nine children, seven of whom you raised: Mrs. Allen (Margaret) Harris; Mrs. William (Juanita) Heindel; Mrs. Arthur (Lucille) Anderson, Marvin J. Jorgensen, Kenneth G. Jorgensen, Mrs Ted (Jody) Anderson, Mrs. William (Dorthy) Decker. Two sons, 3 grandchildren, 2 brothers, 5 sisters and many parents, Jens Hansen and Maren Kirstine Hansen Jorgensen, have all preceded you in death. Considering, Dad, that you have 26 grandchiuldren and 12 great grandchildren alive today, you and all of us have been bleddes indeed.
Your love of your new country was evidenced not only by your willingness to serve but in sending 2 sons and 3 sons-in-law to war during World War II. Even now you have a grandson serving in Japan. You have shown your love also by becoming a citizen and obeying the laws of the land.
You aren't leaving a fortune in money, Dad, nor a name for painting a masterpiece, writing poetry or comoosing music. But what you have left your family es a legacy worth much more. Your example of integrity, hard work, service, love, understanding and a strong sence of humor, we shall always cherish and try to emulate the rest of our lives.
Yes, Dad, we shall miss you very much! But we know that this part of life called death is but the passing through an open door to another realm. We know that, as it should be, you are now preparing for us to come to you much the same as you must have prepared for us to come to you here in this earthly sphere. If there is a fishing place there, you wil find it and sometime again you will enjoy trying to beat your children and grandchildren at the fine art of fishing...perhaps even spinning a few yarns about the big ones which always get away!
We are sure that our Heavenly Father is pleased with you and happy to have you home again. What a wonderful reunion you must be having with your loved ones, and especially Mother, attended to your wants and needs.
And so, Dad, we are sending you our thanks an appreciation for all the many things chich you have done for us. We know that you and Mom have done without many things you could have for us. Watch for us for it shall not be long until we will all be reunited as a family for all eternity with you at the head of the family, We are closing our letter with a poem that must have beeb written by someone with a love of fishing such as you had:
A FISHERMAN'S PRAYER
I pray that I may live to fish
Until my dying day
And when it comes to my last cast
I then most humbly pray
When in t´he Lord's great landing net
And peacefully asleep
That in His mercy I be judged
Big enough to keep
Derefter har Jody tilføjet dette:
My Memories of Dad
When I wrote the life sketch for Dad's furnal, it was after he had died and I remember it being hard to do. Had I not been so emotionally stressed out, I probably could have done a better job. There are a few personal things that I might add here.
Dad was raised in Denmark where the men where the patriarchs of the family in every sense of word. From what I have read and heard from others who knew, the men were the decision makers undisputedly. I saw that in Dad. Mom kind of following along for the most part, trying hard to please him. There were times when she asserted herself but very few in my memories. He was the leader and she followed.
Dad was not demonstrative in his love. Please understand that I am writing this for my own memories. Perhaps he was more open and loving to the older children he had. I only remember him telling he loved me once and that was when I left to get to Berkeley, California to join Ted after we were married. As I kissed him goodbye when I left to go to the train depot, he told me that he loved me. I had felt of his love before but that was the only time he verbally essured me of it. I remember of a time when I was in about the third grade that I had gone to the grocery store, which was about 5 blocks from our home, with him. It was very dark and there were no street lights along the way and so to an eight or nine year old, it was pretty scarey. I don't remember wether I reached up for his hand or whatever he just took mine, but I do remember the secure feeling I had as I walked hand in hand with him down that dark street! I always felt secure when he was homme at night.
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