Every Senior Has a Story: Charlotte "Chum" Deur

The first thing most people ask Charlotte Deur is where in the world she got her nickname, Chum, and she'll tell you, she honestly does not know. All she knows is that when she started first grade, all the other children started calling her Chum, and it just stuck.

A widow of four years, Chum has been living at HIlltop for almost a year. Her room is spacious and comfortable, well decorated with family photos, and looks out onto the gazebo and grounds. She was a gracious hostess, as long as we realized she had to get to her Bingo game in an hour!

Chum never knew her mother. She died when Chum was just a year old, and her father, her sister (two years older), and she moved in with her dad's parents on a farm in the Peoria countryside. That household still had ten siblings, so she was well taken care of, and as the baby of the brood, one might even say she was pampered.

"Grandpa DeJong thought I could do no wrong," Chum laughed, "but Grandma was smarter, and she punished me when I needed it!"

Chum recalls choring before and after school, gathering eggs, milking the cows, gathering cobs and wood for the stove, mowing and canning in the summer. They would play Annie, Annie, Over and Hide-and-Seek, or go sledding in winter. There were cousins from town who loved to come to the farm to play, and that was a high-light for the children on the farm, who in turn loved to go into town to play. "The kids in town had roller skates," she said, "but there were never enough for all of us, so we each skated around on just one skate."

She began school at Lower Grove, but after a year transferred to the Peoria Christian School, where she finished the eighth grade. Without a moment's hesitation, she said her favorite subject was spelling, and that she been a multiple-time winner of the county spelling bee, followed by arithmetic, "though they don't call it that anymore."

After completing her schooling, she and her sister worked for other farm families, cleaning, wall-papering, painting, and taking care of the babies. The girls worked together, and so it wasn't really like work. Chum taught herself to play the guitar, and used to provide the music at parties. During those years as young women, they attended Young People's meetings on Sunday nights at church. "We played games after our studies," she explained, "and one night Melvin Deur chose me to be his partner in Hide-and-Seek."

It was a long courtship. By now Chum was living with her dad and his mother, and they needed her care, so she remained at home. Then Mel was drafted into World War II, and she agreed to stay behind, though traveled to visit him in various locations while he was still in the States. Mel served in the South Pacific, and "We each wrote the other every single day. When he came back, we had a great letter-burning party in the orchard!"

They were married on December 26, 1945, when Chum was 27. "He was a wonderful man," she said sadly. "He was kind, thoughtful, and loved to have fun. He worked hard. He was a real special person in my life."

Mel was farming with his father in 1945 when Jake Vander Molen convinced him to go into business with him as a trucker and hog buyer. "Mel knew there really wasn't enough work on the farm to support him and his dad, so he and Jake established the Peoria Stockyards, and Mel worked at that for more than thirty years," after which he became a real estate agent. He also worked quite a while doing photography for and assembling church directories.

Chum did not learn to drive until after she was married, and really wasn't interested in learning then, either. "Mel finally said, 'If you don't learn to drive you'll be stuck at home all the time when I'm away.'" So she learned. "I never did enjoy it though. I let my girls handle all the driving."

They had four children, and during those years Chum kept the house, sewed all the clothes for her girls and some for the boys, and did the cooking and canning - all the same farm duties she'd been doing all her life. When their oldest was 15, they moved to their own farm. "The boys did most of the work, and Mel stayed with the Stockyard." They moved to town in 1969, when the children were so involved in school activities.

Farm families all have pets of course, and Chum remembers in particular "a little Dachshund, not a pure-bred, that was so loving, just took to the kids." She also recalls baking a pan of cornbread every day to feed their collie when she had 13 pups. "They didn't have dog food in those days, remember," she said, "and she had to feed all those little ones!"

Chum always embroidered as a hobby, and has made afghans for all the children and grandchildren, and 13 baby quilts for the great-grandchildren. She still does handwork, just not as much. She also does puzzles and reads, favoring books about the Amish and their way of life. "It excites me. They are very kind people." She's currently reading The Thorn, first in a trilogy by Beverly Lewis, and when that is finished, will read The Judgement, by the same author. Her daughter, who works at the library, will no doubt secure for her the next Lewis book due out in September, The Mercy.

Chum and Melvin traveled extensively throughout Europe, but she was even more animated describing their "bus vacations." Melvin had purchased an old school bus and spent a winter turning it into a camper. They "traveled in style" with another couple and their children, and had their own bathroom, refrigerator, and sleeping arrangements for 12-14 on board. They used this many times, and traveled to places like Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Lake of the Ozarks, and Clear Lake. Her favorite destination though was the Netherlands.

"I feel I've been very blessed with wonderful family, a loving husband, and many, many church friends," Chum concluded. One very special friend is Eleanor Bogaard, whom she says she admires more than anyone else. "She's always there when I need her. She is very kind, and never too busy to help. She comes every week to see me." Eleanor also comes, along with Marge Vos and Elsie Blom, every other Friday or so for Bible Study with Chum and they all start out having breakfast and coffee together.

With that said, Chum was off to her Bingo buddies.

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