Ruth Wilson Adams

I am currently in a gerontology class at BYU and we had an assignment to spend 10 hours with a senior, just hanging out and talking with them. Because I am graduating and moving away, I decided that this would be a great opportunity to spend some time with my Grandma Adams (my paternal grandma). I was able to spend a lot of time with her at family dinners and by visiting her at her apartment and I’m really grateful for the excuse to go up and see her.

            My grandma, Ruth Wilson Adams, was born in the 1920s in Midway, Utah. She was the second oldest in her family and she got along well with her brothers and sisters. Her father died while she was still young and times were really hard for her and her family, but they managed to take care of everything that they needed to. Because times were so hard, often the most her siblings got for Christmas or birthdays was a large puzzle they could do together. This was an important family activity for her and her family and she has loved doing puzzles all of her life. She always has a million puzzles at her house and they are never the same ones. One thing that I remember very well about going to her house while I was growing up was a completed puzzle of Neuschwanstein Castle hanging on her wall.

            My grandma told me that she sometimes would miss the bus to school, in Heber, and would have to start walking. She said that she very rarely would end up walking the whole way because a lady in her ward would end up picking her up pretty regularly and dropping her off on the way to work. She enjoyed school and one of her aunts taught in the school she attended. She was very good at math and science and shorthand. She had a calling as the Sunday School secretary while she was growing up and took minutes during the meeting. Ruth said that she enjoyed the calling because she got to sit up on the stage and she felt important. She also really liked being able to look at the audience and see what they were doing. She still remembers the day of Pearl Harbor. It was a Sunday and she was sitting up on the stand. When the boys were passing the sacrament, one of them dropped the tray. She said that she wasn’t really worried about what would happen, because she felt safe in Utah because it was so inland.

            When she was in high school, Ruth began working for the ration stamp office as a secretary. She kept track of assigning ration stamps and did other office work. She often caught a ride into work with friends. She even kept some of her old ration stamp books and put them in her memory book. She really enjoyed that job and felt like she was really growing up.

            Next came college. Ruth was accepted into Brigham Young University began attending when she graduated from high school. She majored in chemistry and lived in Amelia Knight Hall. She remembers that she lived right over where her chemistry classrooms were, which was right next to the mailroom where she worked. At BYU, Ruth met my grandpa, Arza Paul Adams. They fell in love and got married in 1945 (maybe 1944). They moved up to Pleasant Grove from Provo to live with Paul’s parents on a turkey ranch. They lived in a small shack made out of two turkey coops separated by a plank for about a year. Ruth said that she was so pregnant and the house was so small that she had a hard time moving around the bed. Her mother-in-law brought her down to the main house when she was far along to make sure that she was taken care of. After a few years, they were able to move into a small house, aptly nicknamed the “little house”, next to the main ranch house. They lived there for a few years while Paul finished school and had the first few kids.

           Next, they moved to Iowa, so Paul could study for his PhD in microbiology. They lived there for a few years. That was the first time Ruth had lived outside of Utah, as her family didn’t have very much money to travel. Reflecting, she said that she wasn’t scared to move outside of Utah and away from her family, but instead felt excited and looking forward to the opportunity. She said that they made many lasting friends and one lady especially took her under her wing and helped her. Paul and Ruth continued to have kids (with more to come).

            After Iowa and a brief stint in Salt Lake, Paul was offered a teaching position in North Dakota. Ruth liked North Dakota, but wasn’t a huge fan of the weather. The winters were a little harsh for her liking. She had a few more kids (including my dad) and had her hands full with her young family.

            After several years in North Dakota, Paul, Ruth and co. moved back to Salt Lake. Paul was offered a job by the Deseret Test Center. In a few years, he would be transferred to Dugway, in the West Desert, where he would spend most of the week at an apartment there, while Ruth took care of the family. They completed their family, with the final count being 12 children (with 2 stillborn children in addition). Ruth began taking classes to finish her bachelors in accounting and had her last son, Dan, during finals week. She was worried that she wasn’t going to be able to finish, but she said that it would work out and nothing would stop her if she could help it. She continued on and received her masters and her CPA. Ruth worked on many family accounts and always helped everyone with their taxes every year.

            After Ruth graduated with her bachelors, a tragedy struck the family. The third oldest child, Jim, was killed in a car crash. Ruth still talks about him and the family remembers him fondly. He was “one of the dark haired boys”, as half of the sons were blonde and half had brown hair. He had been married, and as a testament to the love and acceptance of Ruth and Paul, she was invited to live with them and she continued to be a part of the family until she passed away. She was always known as our aunt, and she remarried, and her new husband is thought of as an uncle. Although he is a few degrees removed from being blood family, my grandparents always made sure he felt at home and a part of the family.

            In the mid 1980s, Paul and Ruth were called on a mission to England. They enjoyed their mission very much. They were also able to travel many places. Ruth expressed much gratitude for the chance to be able to see so much of the world, for being a little girl from Midway, Utah. She loved walking on the Great Wall of China and seeing so much of Asia. Her favorite place was Switzerland. Her grandparents came from a small town in Switzerland named Wengen. She was able to go there with her husband and she met her distant relatives. She was even able to see the house where her grandparents grew up. That was a very special experience to her.

            Not much changed in the 1990s, except for the growing of an already large family. In 2004, Paul died from complications of diabetes. This was very hard on Ruth and she still misses him very much.

            My memories of my grandma revolve mainly around her house in Holladay. She always had a puzzle on the dining room table, which was surrounded by glass cabinets containing all of her many collections from her travels. There was a cuckoo clock in the corner which she took with her to her new apartment. She almost always had a quilt she was quilting for someone, or adding to her stock in case one was needed. There were always cookies on the fridge, which she gave us a few more than we probably needed. She also made the best homemade grape juice from grapes she grew herself. Today, she really loves Dr Pepper and nuts for her snack. She loves having little treats around her apartment, just like she did at home. The thing that I talk most about with my grandma is her family. She loves them dearly, even if there are too many for her to remember who everyone is. She at least knows who everyone belongs to, which is better than I can say for myself. She loves red nail polish and getting new clothes. She shows them off when she wears them. She likes getting her hair done.

            The most important quality I’ve seen from my grandma is her love of others. There are so many stories of my grandparents allowing others to stay with their family and accepting them as one of their own. She is always friendly and optimistic. Growing old has been hard for her, but she always greets it with an “oh well” and a laugh. I love my grandma very much.