Sherida was born on 5 December in Kansas City MO and we first met her (with her parents) on Christmas of that year. For quite a few years we all spent some time at the family farm around Christmas and also in the summer. I remember conversations with Ellion about football – the Bombers and/or Vikings and also about world events. We also visited them at their home in Apple Valley a couple of times.
The four of us must have gone out to eat one New Years Eve – I don’t remember the meal but do remember standing on the street in downtown Minneapolis after trying to decide if or where we should for a drink before heading back to Apple Valley.
After the move to Wisconsin, Ellion took up the life of a hobby farmer in addition to his day job. I remember lots of talks about carpentry, building and all the work of keeping things running. Our children overlapped in age and whenever we visited would have a good time chasing around with cousins, horse rides and sliding down the hill in the winter.
Of course we have to remember how Mother (Gertrude Iverson) disliked Germans and made that fact known frequently and firmly– (probably for their treatment of Norway during WWII) but did eventually come around to the conclusion that even though of German ancestory, Ellion was an OK guy. Actually she seemed to respect him quite a bit.
Ellion and family visited us a number of times, in Pinawa and at our cottage. We did some fishing, probably mainly for the kids enjoyment and had a fun time. After he moved to Arizona Ellion invited us to visit several times. We talked about it, and thought it would be fun but never actually got it done. It was a long way and we never got in the habit of winter vacations in the south.
It’s hard to sum up – Ellion was a straight forward, friendly, low key guy, easy to be with, talk and work with but hard to get to know really well. We thought a lot of him and his family and enjoyed our time together.
Stu & Alice Iverson
Pinawa MB
7 June 2019