Benjamin Gustav Schmidt was born in Winnipeg, Canada on May 11, 1913. to Herman Schmidt and Mary Tobert. Both Herman and Mary had emigrated from Europe in the area of Volhynia, Russia, now Ukraine. Herman was born in Shitomir (or Zhytomir) and Mary was born in Lodz, Poland. They both eventually lived for a time in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where they were married and had their first two children, Benjamin Gustav, and Esther.
Herman and Mary and their family left their homestead in Birch Lake, Saskatchewan, and lived in Biggar, Saskatchewan for a time, before moving to Spokane Washington, where Herman farmed vegetables and fruit crops for the Spokane markets.
Alma Bertha Schmidt was born in Ritzville, Washington on May 26, 1933 to Reinhold Reich and Bertha Kison. Reinhold had immigrated to America from Bessarabia, Russia (now Ukraine) to Ritzville, where he met Bertha Kison, and later moved to Spokane, Washington. They were married in Ritzville, but set up their home in Spokane where Alma Bertha was born, along with a brother Elmer and Rose Marie.
Reinhold changed his name to Rich to Americanize the name and avoid discrimination against Germans during the period of World War I.
Both Ben and Alma attended business schools after high school. Alma graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, then went to a business college (Spokane Business College?). Both of them were smart enough for college, and would have loved to attend, but the economy was such that this was not possible.
Ben started school in the Spokane Valley at Veradale Grade School. He knew no English, since only German was spoken at home (except when Herman and Mary spoke Polish so they could speak privately. Ben was forbidden to speak English at home, which complicated the language learning process. He was interested in playing basketball at school after classes, but Herman insisted that he come right home after school to help out with farming chores. He graduated from Central Valley High School. Bob, Helen and I all attended Veradale Grade School, and Central Valley High School also.
Both the Schmidt and Rich families attended the German Baptist Church in Spokane on Arthur Street, where they met and married on May 26, 1933. They had three children by the time Ben was 23 years old, Robert Ben, Helen Marie, and George Raymond.
Ben farmed and raised vegetables and fruit, like his father before him, but also worked at the Early Dawn Dairy to support the family. Later, he went to work for the Northern Pacific Railway as a railway clerk. Along with his railroad work, he built homes as a side job. He would build a home, move into it, then start another, before repeating the process. Sometimes the new homes would not be completely finished before needing to move out after the current home was sold. That meant a lot of moving, but fortunately all in the same Central Valley school district so school changes were never needed.
Some of the early home sales meant innovative living arrangements, such as the summer he rented a cabin at Newman Lake, where we all had the enjoyment of living in a lake cabin, swimming, fishing and boating while Ben was a work, both for the railroad, and working on getting our new home ready to move into. On one such move, he bought a home in Spokane that was across the street from Grandma Rich (Siewert). We moved back into the Spokane Valley in time for the start of high school in the fall.
Ben would work on his home building in the morning before going to work, put in his full day, then come home for dinner, and go out again to work on the new homes. When neighbors complained about the noise in the evenings, he had to cut his evenings short. Bob and I would work with him after school, cleaning up scrap and sweeping sawdust, and would also be out there with him on weekends, with only Sunday's off.
Most of Ben's railroad years were spent working in a set of caboose cars that were set up on a siding above the tracks outside the Kaiser Aluminum Rolling Mill in Trentwood, Washington. However, at times he would be "bumped" by another railroad employee, a person who had himself been bumped, and was thus given the priviledge of bumping into another person's job where he had more "seniority". After a time, sometimes a few years, Ben would bump back into the same job in Trentwood.
Ben had heart issues, and had an aorta heart valve replaced with a "pig valve". During the surgery, the original valve that was to be used was found to be the wrong size, and that meant that he was under anesthesia longer than normal, while another suitable valve was found. As a result, he developed memory issues that worsened as he got older. The symptoms were like Altzheimers, but was not officially called that. The heart issue contributed to his death. It is of interest to note that Esther, Ruth and Robert, and possibly also Bill had Altzheimers type symptoms near the end of their lives.
The heart surgery happened shortly after he retired from the railroad, and after working hard all his life, doing essentially two plus jobs, and deserving good retirement years, he was denied the experience of a long healthy retirement. This also put a heavy load on Alma who was determined not to put him into a nursing home. In the later years, she would take him part of a day to a day care facility, so she could have a break, do grocery shopping etc.
Alma cared for him at home as long as she was able, but the issues grew to the point where she could no longer keep it up, and for a short time, he was in a nursing facility, until his death.
Alma continued to live in the duplex they had built for themselves and Grandma Siewert, until after Grandma Siewert passed away. Helen later had a home built for them, and Alma lived there while Helen was in the mission field in Cameroon. Alma passed away during the last year of Helen's time in Cameroon, just before they would have been able to enjoy the final years together.
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