Germaine Ann Natrop

It was the end of The First World War, and I was born Germaine Ann Landry January 8, 1918. The boys from “Over There” came home carrying the deadly Influenza Virus. In the US, it spread from Kansas, and killed up to 50 million people worldwide. Everyone in my household contracted the virus including me. My parents, Julia and Victor had to hire nurses to live with us. The nurses told one another that I was not going to survive. Well, I did survive and went on to live a full life of almost 95 years we always said that my bout with Influenza supercharged my immune system. However I did have to relearn how to walk all over again. My parents tried to give all of their children names that could not be shortened into nicknames, so there was Germaine, then Howard and Clarence. I also had an older brother, Norman who died at age 2 on March 23rd, 1918 of a ruptured appendix after periontonitis set in. People died all of the time in those days. It was long before we had antibiotics. My Parents got married, when they were still in mourning, from a family, member, who had died less than a year before, so there was not a big celebration. We had a full house on the farm in Lena, Wisconsin. Old Chenevert came to live with us when his wife died, then came Orville and Ora, cousins of mine, whose mother had died. Later on, my aunt Rosie came to live at our house. My mother Julia happily cooked and cleaned for all of us, plus she sewed clothes for the neighboring farm families. I was not particularly ambitious as a young girl. I hardly went out to the barn. We had apple trees and a huge garden, but I didn’t like to eat apples or carrots very much. I was a “Tattletale”. When one of the boys did something bad, I always went straight to my mother and told her, expecting to be praised, but she never praised me for tattling. It was my father, Victor, who pressured me into going to “Normal School in Oconto Falls. I roomed with Gene and Emma Desrameaux during the week and my dad would come and get me for the weekends. There were times when we students would share one toothbrush, because none of us had much of anything in those days. My first job as a teacher in 1935-36, was at Meadow Brook School and I taught in a one-room school house just up the hill from our farm. In fact, I taught my younger brother Clarence, when he was five. He has since gone on to a 50 year career as a prolific adjunct professor of Study Strategies, and Reading Comprehension, working with Graduate students, who need help with their LSATs, GMATs, MCATs and GREs at Rockford College. He recently retired after 43 years as a Ranger Naturalist and Supervisor at Glacier National Park, in Montana. I know I taught Clarence well and am so proud of his legacy.I dated several fine men,but I fell for a tall handsome guy from a large family, that I knew all of my life. Bud Lemirande(Norbert, or Torr as his friends called him) was a gentle good man who was athletic and fun to be with. I waited to marry him for 5 years until he came home from the Second World War. We got married in Lena and had a wonderful reception right there on our farm. It was a great time, because all of the boys were coming home from the war. My brother Howard (The Mechanical Genius in our family) got home just a couple of days before my wedding. He wore his uniform at the wedding because he didn’t have any other clothes. Bud worked hard for me and our five children. We moved to Milwaukee, because that’s where the jobs were after the war. Once, Bud had to go to work in Detroit, because he was layed off in Milwaukee. Times were hard. I budgeted closely. My old spread sheets showed that one week, I had 32 cents to last 2 days for a family of 4. Eventually Bud went into business with his partner, Gene Kusch. They were successful, but still had to work overtime to compete. That company paid for a lot of kids to go to private Catholic schools, so we felt blessed. Bud died on the job in Cudahy, Wisconsin in 1970, so I went back to teaching and had a whole new fulfilling career. I retired from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Another good man in my life was my second husband Gerry Natrop. Our families knew each other because we lived on the same block in Milwaukee. Gerry had graduated from Marquette in Accounting and was on the board of directors of two companies. Several couples from our old block on the South Side formed an investment club that Gerry commandeered. We had fun and got an education .I have always been very big on education in any form. Gerry brought a whole new lifestyle to me. We traveled to Holland, where his family came from and we went on several nice business trips. We took up golf and entertained in our new condo. Life was perfect, until Gerry died in 1984. I was only 65 and had the energy to take up genealogy with a passion. I traveled to Europe and Canada researching my French heritage. I helped take care of my mother, who lived to be 104, I became a champion at bridge and I studied the Bible more closely. I bought myself a home in Florida, for my 80th birthday. The bank willingly signed a 30 year mortgage, so I was glad to oblige them. I have been living here for 14 years and am lucky to be around my children and grand children. I have attentive neighbors, who have enabled me to live independently. I always have followed my doctor’s orders and have been fortunate to have children, who keep me on the straight and narrow diet wise. No wonder that I have lived such a long life. Recently, I tried to do all that the therapists asked of me while I was in my rehab facility, but alas I was too tired to continue trying. We struggled to give our children a good head start in life just as my parents did for me, and I see my children doing the same for their children. I am thankful for the freedom, faith and family that God gave me. I will live on in the hearts and minds of all whom I have touched. Remember always, that I am watching down on you and I still am here for you. Germaine Ann Landry Lemirande Natrop, December 13th, 2012A Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady of Guadalupe 16650 US 301 S, Wimauma, Fl Saturday, Dec. 29th, 10:00 AM.

Germaine Ann Natrop

January 8, 1918 - December 13, 2012

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Germaine Ann Natrop

January 8, 1918 - December 13, 2012

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