52 Ancestors :: Week 7: Valentine

I hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day this week. My husband was out of town, so I celebrated by getting some rooms painted - thanks, honey! I also bought myself some lovely roses to enjoy this week. I thought of my grandma, Lila Mitchell Ogilvie, when I saw these beauties. 

Her favorite color was an old-fashioned, dusty rose, and she looked lovely when she wore it. I was so inspired by her love of this color that my childhood room had wallpaper this color. I didn't learn just how deep her love of roses went until my grandparents were in their nineties. That was when I heard more about their long-distance romance during World War II.

​My grandparents were married on 4 November 1939.[1] Coming out of the Great Depression, money was tight, and they continued living at my grandmother's childhood home while my grandfather finished college. After receiving his commission in the Army ROTC, he served in World War II from 4 May 1942 to 2 February 1946.[2] He carried this photo (below) of my grandma with him all the way across Europe, including England, Normandy, Belgium, Germany, and post-war occupation in Czechoslovakia.

​​My grandpa was a pretty practical man (engineer - enough said!), so I have to admit that I was a little surprised to learn that before he left, he made a special arrangement with Brown's Floral in Salt Lake City. Every week that he was gone, without fail, they delivered three pink roses to my grandmother. That's every. week. for. nearly. four. years. 

My aunt said the variety was "old rose" - I haven't been able to find a photo of it, yet... My grandma remained in her father's house for all those years. She worked at the dental office at Fort Douglas, spent time with her family, and waited for her husband to come home.

​Although they would eventually raise four children, my grandparents had to wait nearly ten years after their wedding to welcome their first child. The patience and fortitude demanded of them during their early years of their marriage is really inspiring for me.

​I love thinking about her receiving that delivery of roses each week... The surprise of the first delivery, how she must have looked forward to it as time passed, and also how she would have preferred to just have her husband home in one piece. 

My grandpa was famous for saying "It will all work out." I have trusted these words more and more as time goes by - and I'm sure my grandma must have, too.

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1. "Utah, Select Marriage Index, 1887-1985," database online, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 February 2018), entry for Kendal Morris Ogilvie and Lila Mitchell, 1939, certificate number A083560; citing "Various Utah State Public Record Offices."

2. Utah State Archives and Records Service (Salt Lake City), Military Service Cards, ca. 1898-1975, Reel 093 - Neusmeyer, Kenneth - Otis, Francis, for Kendal M. Ogilvie; database online, "Utah, Military Records, 1861-1970," Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 February 2018); citing Department of Administrative Services, Division of Archives and Records Service, Series 85268, Reel 93.