"Everything I Need is Right Here"

So says Catherine VanderWiel, a resident of the long-term care unit at Pella Regional Health Center. Born in 1920, this 91-year-old woman came to realize that, with her share of health issues and without family, she needed to move to a facility that would care for her. She appreciates her lovely room ("I have more space than I thought I would have! I wish I hadn't given quite so much away before moving!"), prepared meals, and the proximity of health care. She has been there for three years.

She speaks softly and appears to be frail, but Catherine remains intellectually alert and engaged. When we arrived for this interview, she had an outline of her life already prepared, and we had a good conversation adding details.

One of the five children of Peter and Adrajana Verschuure, Catherine was born and raised on a farm five miles southeast of Tracy, Iowa. She lived there with her two brothers and two sisters for eleven years.
Catherine and Frank VanderWiel

"We had no toys, so we made up our own fun and games," she said. "My favorite was the running gears of an old carriage, which we called 'our cart.' Together with neighborhood children, five or six could climb on and ride down a hill in the pasture. The driver had to be careful to make the turn at the bottom of the hill, or there would be a spill in the creek."

The children attended Tracy Consolidated School, Catherine starting at age five, riding an hour and a half morning and evening in a horse-drawn school bus. "We called it the 'Kid Wagon,'" she said. "Oh my, it was cold in the winter! But we made up games to play on the way." After school, she would change her clothes and with her younger sisters gather cobs and sticks and coal for heating fuel. Summers, the girls helped in the garden and preparing food for canning, while the boys helped with the farming.

When the Depression hit, her parents were no longer able to make their farm payments, and the family moved to a succession of rental farms. School was hit-and-miss then. Sometimes the children walked to one-room country schools which used different books and were at different levels of work, and so they would miss out on blocks of information in various subjects.

"We were very poor during the Depression," Catherine said, "but we always had plenty to eat. I remember being embarrassed to have to wear my older brother's shoes to school, though, when mine wore out, but we got along fine. My mother was very adept at sewing clothes. She would give us the scraps, and we'd make doll clothes."

"However, we remained living in one place while I attended Prairie City High School," she said. Catherine took home economics classes, and learned to read sewing patterns. Most of her life, then, she made all her own clothes.

She graduated as Valedictorian, then attended a twelve-week teacher training course at William Penn College and took the state teachers' exams to qualify for teaching in Iowa's one-room rural schools. For six years, she taught K-8 in Monroe and Pella rural schools, serving also as her own janitor, and, sometimes, water hauler when there was no pump on the school grounds. She had learned to drive at 18 and had her own car when teaching. At first she boarded with families, but when she was in a school close to Pella, she lived at home with her parents, who had moved from Prairie City to a small farm northeast of Pella, and later to a home on University.

Catherine's older brothers and sister married and began their own homes and families, and Catherine began dating Frank VanderWiel. Their dating spanned six years, as Frank could not very often come from Prairie City. To save on gas, he came with his cousin, Harry Tibboel, who was dating Catherine's sister, Cornelia.

Gradually, they came more and more frequently, and on February 23, 1945 (her parents' 35th. wedding anniversary) the couples married in a double ring ceremony at the First Christian Reformed Church in Pella.

"I had dated Frank's older brother a few times, and that didn't go over very well at all! I had no idea Frank had his eye on me," she laughed. "I'm the only person he ever dated - I was his one and only," she said softly, shyly, lovingly, with tears in her eyes. Frank died suddenly after 32 years of marriage. Catherine still misses him.

The couple moved to a farm west of Prairie City where Frank could help his parents and use their farm equipment. Seven years of farming took its toll on Frank, and they moved to Pella, where he "drove a tank wagon delivering gas to farmers and also drove the Leighton school bus for fifteen years." He was later asked to be on the Pella Police Department, where he served for ten years until "the Lord suddenly called him to his eternal reward," in 1977 at age 57.

Very proud of Frank's being asked to join the Department, she said "He had such good judgement, and a way with young people. They'd come to our house to visit, and while they didn't always agree with what he was telling them, they respected him. He had a way of making them see other alternatives."

Catherine, meanwhile, worked part-time for five years for Arie Boot at Boot Bookkeeping, until she was asked to return to teaching. "For 25 years,' she related, "I was privileged to teach and guide little ones in God's way in the kindergarten room of Pella Christian Grade School." She loved teaching. She has influenced the lives of more than 1100 children - she kept track.

Once teaching again, she spent her summers earning her degree at William Penn College. Summers were also spent traveling throughout the United States. "We had so many vacations!" she said excitedly. "Frank said we deserved a summer vacation because we worked so hard during the school year! The Rocky Mountains were my favorite, but we went to Washington, D.C., the national parks, Yellowstone and Glacier, to Hawaii, and Michigan many times!" They had a good arrangement, too, by traveling with and sharing expenses with Frank's sisters, who became like family to them.

In her spare time, Catherine read, wrote, and did a lot of various kinds of handwork, reflected in her present room. She used to volunteer in the schools and teach Sunday School and catechism classes.

But she will tell you that what is most important in her life is her love for the Lord. "I was born in a Christian home where Bible reading and prayer took place at every meal. Each Saturday we attended catechism classes, and our father made sure we knew our lessons well. I have learned to trust our almighty God who is with us in all the joys and sorrows of life and has promised to take those who love Him to be with Him forever."

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