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Online journal of writer Loretta Willems

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Bk. 3. 8: Northwest Journal Granite Falls, May 1960

August 21, 2020September 4, 2020 / lorettawillems / 2 Comments

Phoenix was not our first choice for a home, but we built a good life for ourselves there. We had good friends and neighbors we liked very much. We enjoyed working on our house and fixing it up; we enjoyed taking drives out into the desert and up to Flagstaff to visit Ben’s folks. And … Continue reading Bk. 3. 8: Northwest Journal Granite Falls, May 1960

Bk 3. 6: Northwest Journal February 1957

July 20, 2020September 4, 2020 / lorettawillems / Leave a comment

The ship in whose depths I have lived for the last two weeks entered the Straights of Juan de Fuca, the deep strip of water that separates Washington’s Olympic Peninsula from Canada’s Vancouver Island. It was a troop ship on its way to Seattle, and I was one of the military dependents who boarded the … Continue reading Bk 3. 6: Northwest Journal February 1957

The Gift of Laughter; The Story of a California Mennonite Family

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“In The Gift of Laughter, you will find one family’s story of deep trauma—and the resilience born out of an ability to laugh together. . . . Laughter was their gift to each other, their story a gift to others.”

–Hope Nisly, Acquisitions Librarian for Fresno Pacific University

 

“Loretta Willems has a fascinating family history and writes of it with lovely detail, honest reflection and great beauty.”

–Dora Dueck, award-winning author of Return Stroke: Essays and Memoir, and four books of fiction

Child Bride; Remembering a Young Mother

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Agnes Young was fourteen in 1936 when she eloped with twenty-one year old Jacob Willems and joined him on his vagabond life, traveling California’s country roads, picking up work wherever they could find it. Two years later she gave birth to her first child. Agnes was only sixteen when she became a mother; yet she managed to create a stable home for family, a home that felt secure and safe.

Former Website

A Mennonite Story: The Willems/Zimmermann Family

Recent Posts

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  • The House on South Blakeley
  • How I got to the GTU
  • How I became a Mennonite
  • Agnes Young Willems: In Memorium
  • Phoenix, Arizona: March 1958-59
  • Japan: 1956

Categories

  • 1920s California
  • 1930s California
  • 1940s California
  • 1950s
  • 1950s California
  • Agnes Young Willems
  • Book 3
  • CA
  • Canada
  • Early marriages
  • Jacob "Jack" Willems
  • Japan
  • Loretta Willems
  • Mennonite History
  • Old photos
  • Paul Buxman paintings
  • Phoenix, Arizona
  • Reedley
  • Reflections
  • Richardson family
  • The Adam & Margaret Young family
  • Theology
  • Uncategorized
  • Western Washington 1957-1961
  • Willems Family History
  • WW II
  • Zimmerman Family History

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Memoir Chapters


Ch. 1: "California Mennonite"

Ch. 2: "WWII"

Ch. 3: "Going to Dinuba"

Ch. 4: "Grandma & Grandpa Willems"

Ch. 5: "How We Got to Russia"

Ch. 6: "Mountain Lake, Minnesota"

Ch. 7: "Saskatchewan"

Ch. 8: "Russia: 1866-1903"

Ch. 9: "The Zimmermans 1903-1905"

Ch. 10: "Waldheim"

Ch. 10 (cont.): "The Zimmerman Clock"

Ch.11: "Lena & Jacob 1909-1919"

Ch. 12: "Reedley"

Ch. 13: "California 1919-1922"

Ch. 14: "Madera County: 1922-1929"

Jacob C. & Helena Zimmerman Willems

Waldheim, Saskatchewan 1909

My grandparents, Jacob and Helena, were step-brother and step-sister in a marriage the family said was arranged by the Mennonite Brethren Church.

The marriage between my grandmother’s father, Heinrich H. Zimmermann—a widower with five children, and my grandmother’s mother, Elisabeth Boldt Willems—a widow with nine children, resulted in two more Willems-Zimmerman marriages: in 1909, the marriage between Jacob and Helena; and in 1912, the marriage between my grandfather’s brother George and my grandmother’s sister Anna.

Research and documents about the Willems and Zimmerman families can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

lwillemsmennostory.blogspot.com

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Categories

  • 1920s California
  • 1930s California
  • 1940s California
  • 1950s
  • 1950s California
  • Agnes Young Willems
  • Book 3
  • CA
  • Canada
  • Early marriages
  • Jacob "Jack" Willems
  • Japan
  • Loretta Willems
  • Mennonite History
  • Old photos
  • Paul Buxman paintings
  • Phoenix, Arizona
  • Reedley
  • Reflections
  • Richardson family
  • The Adam & Margaret Young family
  • Theology
  • Uncategorized
  • Western Washington 1957-1961
  • Willems Family History
  • WW II
  • Zimmerman Family History
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