Oh My Goodness!

About the Book

This is a wonderful story about my grandmother who immigrated from Germany, in the latter 1800s, at age three. By 1912 she was going dancing and to basket socials and pie socials with a lovely young man, but she could not marry him because Freddie had one flaw: poor Freddie was cross-eyed. She was afraid that if she married him she'd have cross-eyed kids! Makes sense to me! My mom, Anna, landed a job with Dad who had recently lost his first wife in a farm accident.

Eventually they wed. Dad's first wife had borne six children. My mother, Anna, never one to be outdone, proudly presented him with eleven more offspring. Dad had preferred to sire sons, to help on the farm, but he was destined to produce only five sons, while rearing no less than a dozen females! There are lots of interesting stories to tell when being born into that mammoth family. These are interlaced with humor. The pioneer lifestyle is brought out big-time, everything from hearing the corn grow on a humid Minnesota night to spelling bees at the country school, and a chimney fire we kids experienced one winter night when our parents were gone from home.

Oh My Goodness! Sixteen Siblings dates from the early part of the twentieth century until my mother's death in the 1980s. Good stories about her and her family immigrating are brought out, and a certain amount of history and a lot of humor is laced into the story. My book should have great appeal to seniors, other adults and students as far down as fifth grade.

About the Author

Ruth Rosenber Haase is the mother of five children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She continues to write and is working on a book regarding Bi-Polar illness, an illness she has struggled with for years. She lives in Port Townsend, Washington where she is in close proximity to her children and grandchildren.