Remembrances of Atella Wiltbank Haws

Hollyhocks like those at Grandma's House

By her grandson David Carl Slade

My earliest remembrance of Grandma Haws was from my family’s summer trips to Eagar Arizona from California where I grew up. We would make the 12 hour trip, first on the train and Grandma would pick us up in Holbrook, and then in later years we would drive the whole way. We always stayed at Grandma’s house and she was always the kindest host. Her homemade butter and fresh milk always made for wonderful breakfast meals.

She always had a big garden and grew raspberries. I loved raspberries and would pick and eat them. I loved to see her flowers and she always had a lot of them growing around her home. I especially remember the tall holly hocks. They would be tall and colorful.

A Braided Rug made by Grandma Haws

 She was a hard worker and I would often see her working in the garden or making cheese or butter. She would not waste anything. One example of this was her braided rugs. She would use the fabric that she could not turn into a quilt or something else useful to braid into rugs. I have one of those rugs that she gave me as a gift. I was always amazed at the number of quilts that she made because she always seemed to have a quilt to give away at most occasions.

Grandma was quite an artist. She was an artist through her quilts, tatting, and other things that she made. She often had a quilt on the frames to be quilted and it would take up the entire living room.  I have some beautiful quilts made by her and some of them had tatted lace on them. I was always amazed to watch her work her tatting with the little shuttle she used. I tried to learn from her once but I failed to learn it. I remember her continuing to quilt in her last couple of years even sitting on her bed with a little quilt frame. She did not ever just quit doing the things that she had always done in her life just because it became hard in her last few years.

A tatted Bookmark made by Grandma Haws for Terri Ann Slade

Grandma loved to play scrabble and so there was often a game of scrabble going on in the evening. I also know that grandma read a lot and she had a love of learning. She always kept her mind busy doing good things such as reading good books or playing games that would challenge her mind.

Grandma loved all of her family and was always serving them. She would write letters to them visit them, make quilts, rugs, tatted lace and peanut brittle for them. I saw this on trips we made with Grandma around the White Mountains and in Mesa. We would stop and visit so many relatives such as Cora Sharp in Shumway and she was always welcomed by those that she visited. One time she told me I should get one of her great nieces that I did not know to go to young adults. I got to know this niece and later married her.

When I enlisted in the US Army many of my relatives thought I was making a big mistake and even questioned me about it. However, Grandma Haws supported me. She came to my graduation from Army Basic Training in Missouri.

Grandma loved peanut M&Ms. At least once at a family reunion she had a jar of peanut M&Ms and if you guessed the number in the jar you got the jar and the M&Ms.

Patience was one virtue that Grandma had. There were always a lot of grandkids around and she did not yell at them or me. She always had cookies in her camel cookie jar. We grandkids loved to play in grandma’s yard. I remember games of “piggy wants a motion” or “kick the can” with her front porch being the base. There was also the rocking horse made out of a tree that had three limbs and was laid on its side. It was rode by sitting on the top limb and the two bottom limbs were shaped so that it would rock back and forth.

The gospel was important to Grandma. She was a great example to me of the gospel in action. She always knew who was sick or needed help and made sure that help was provided. She read her scriptures and attended church. I also remember when it was time for a meal that we would kneel by our chairs for family prayer. I think that we did this for breakfast and supper. Grandma was always teaching me. During her last year when she spent a lot of time in bed I asked how she was doing and she said that she was just trying to endure to the end.