Ruth Gardner Adair Palmer
Incidents
Flowers were not the only plants Ruth loved She also loved trees-a rather scarce creation in the land of sagebrush where she grew up. Al, on the other hand, was not fond of anything that couldn't produce something to be eaten. He was proud of Ruth's flowers. But, when it came to trees; well, he preferred to see them gone. One tree stands out in particular memory. It started out as a small sturdy seedling that planted itself on the edge of Ruth's garden in Tiffany. That first year, it grew very fast and attained a good size before winter snows blew. The next spring Al plowed it up, along with the garden when getting it ready for planting- Unfazed, the tree sent up new shoots, and again attained respectable size during the summer. Next spring, again the plow. Again, it grew. Well, Ruth had the picture by then, so with the help of one of her children, she dug it up and replanted it out of the reach of Al's plow. The tree lives today. A big beautiful Chinese Elm, which shelters the back of the home at Tiffany, thanks to Ruth's protecting care.Mother always did her own canning. One year, when she was in her 70's, she not only did her own canning, she went to one daughter and two daughters-in-law and did their canning too, because she felt that they were so busy, she ought to help them out. Just about all of her daughters-in law have said "She was the best of mother-in-laws. She never interferred with how we did things, and always was there to help with work, children and good advice.
She would tell stories about her own children and how they would always eat what she prepared. She always prepared a virtual feast, so of course, they always ate!"
Dad had a commendable habit of finding people and families who were in trouble. He would help out by bringing them home without warning Ruth. Her reply would be: "No, problem. I'll just throw a few more potatoes in the pot, and they can sleep cross-wise in the bed!"
Mother never wasted anything. We would come home at nights, and there would be the wonderful smell of a baking cake and a smile on Mother's face as she watched her Thundering Herd devour the cake. Then she would tell us "You'll never guess what was in that cake! It was every leftover that was in the refrigerator!" That could mean anything from fruit to spinach, squash, or some other vegetable. But her "Surprise Cakes" were always great.
Like any mother, Ruth had her own philosophies about how to raise her children. Judging by the results they must have been pretty effective. She always said that if you gave a child good things to see, good things to hear, and good things to eat that, even if the child went astray, they would return to the gospel and right living. She was a pretty good judge of her children's characters and tried to adjust her efforts at teaching and discipline accordingly.
As any parent knows, raising children isn't always the pleasure we would like it to be. Ruth's children were no exception to the rule. For example, some could be awful pests. The following story is about a certain "pest" who shall remain nameless. He knows who he is. One day, this young man decided to test the extent of his mother's love. He went down to the river, and buried himself up to his neck in the sand, then started yelling that he was stuck in "quick" sand. An older sister heard him and in great consternation ran for help. While she was gone, he got out of the sand, cleaned himself off, left his hat on the spot where he had been, then hid himself in the bushes. He was greatly pleased to see his mother come tearing down the hill in a panic to try to save her son, and one of the neighbor men riding his horse at full speed and yelling for help. This young miscreant received the appropriate punishment for his misdeed, and was reassured that his mother, did indeed, love him very much.
Of course, not all of her children's and grandchildren's sneaky tricks were quite so devastating. In fact, Ruth was quite happy to play along with some of them. Every Thanksgiving for the years spent in Tiffany, Ruth and Al would host a family reunion dinner for all their children and their families. Ruth always made delicious pumpkin pies ( out of squash she grew in her garden) for this dinner. Charles and some of the younger grandsons just couldn't wait for dinner to get a taste of the wonderful smells coming from her kitchen. As the pies were done, Grandmother would place her pies on a cupboard to cool. Once the lower shelf was filled, she would place the pies on an upper shelf, which was near the kitchen window. The boys would hide off the side of the window where they thought they couldn't be seen. As Ruth would turn back to the stove, they would reach through the window and grab a pie. As another pie was put in its place, they would grab it. It was a long time before they realized that our mother was cooperating with them.
As her sister Ruby says, Ruth was a mother (or grandmother) to everyone. As a matter of fact, some friends of her grandchildren came to one of our family reunions. It just so happened that these friends were also named Palmer, although they were not related. The grandson talked his unrelated friends into playing a trick on Grandmother Palmer. They wanted to see how long it would take for her to realize they were not her grandchildren. They went running up to her, told her their names, and starting making a big fuss over her, and how happy they were to see her after such a long time. Grandmother Ruth was buying right into the story, and was obviously delighted with their attentions. However, Madge, who was sitting nearby wasn't fooled, and demanded to know "who those people were." The game was up! But, Grandmother Ruth was not bothered in the least-she simply said "That's okay. I still love you."
Mother Ruth was a good person. She always looked for what was good in everything. She preferred the good to the bad, and would even try to put a good face on a bad situation. She never spoke ill of any person. Her favorite rhymn went something like this: There's a little bit of bad in the best of us, and a little bit of good in the worst of us. So it behooves the most of us not to talk about rest of us! Some have accused her of being the perennial innocent. I'm not sure that's true, but I think she worked very hard to remain pure in thought and deed. That's not to say that she didn't have a temper! She most certainly did. But, we had to work very hard to force her to show her temper. When we forced the issue she could talk us to death, or at least to the point that we wished we were.
Ruth was a very creative person. She love to admire and create beautiful things. Before we could take color pictures, Mother took a course on how to colorize photographs. She had a natural eye for color, and thoroughly enjoyed coloring many family photos. This skill led her to take some instruction in oil painting. She did very well, and has since painted many pictures for her family. She always refused to call herself an artist. She insisted that she was merely copying, and not creating.
She had many other talents and interests and a great imagination. She taught her children and grandchildren to find pictures in the clouds of the sky, in rock formations and other features of nature.
She was constantly coming up with ways to reuse things, like Christmas cards, used egg cartons, even foil gum wrappers in a beautiful way. She couldn't bear to throw anything out. She was positive there would be some creative use for all of it.
Ruth loved to sing and recite poetry. Her children have recorded many of her songs, and poems. They have been amazed by her extensive memorized collection of songs and poetry. One daughter counted 80 some different poems that she recited in just one setting. Ruth sang in every ward choir in each ward that she attended for as long as she had the ability to join them. She entertained family and friends with her many renditions.