Ruth now sings with the great heavenly choir...her voice among the strongest and she is willing to goose the accompanyist if they dare drag. When it is her turn to pick a hymn it is #264 out of the blue book, "I know that my Redeemer lives":


I know that my Reedeemer lives!  What comfort this sweet sentence gives!  He lives, he lives, who once was dead; He lives my ever living head.


He lives triumphant from the grave;  He lives eternally to save; He lives exalted, throned above, He lives to rule his Church in love.


He lives to grant me rich suply; He lives to guide me with his eye; He lives to comfort me when faint; He lives to hear my soul's complaint.


He lives to silence all my fears; He lives to wipe away my tears; He lives to calm my troubled heart; He lives all blessings to impart.

(Last verse, I skip a few):  He lives all glory to His name!  He lives, my Savior, still the same; What joy this blest assurance gives; I know that my Redeemer lives!         


Rest in peace mom...we love you with our whole hearts.   


        

And so it was as Alex, Chuck and I gathered around my mom in her final days.  Yes, she had made herself a millionaire, competing with men in what was then a man’s world.  Yes, she had a beautiful home and seen the world, etc., etc.  But in these final days the lesson of her life that we had witnessed for all of ours became even more stark.  All that “stuff” wasn’t important.  I was stunned by my mom’s grace, dignity, sense of humor and confidence in her Lord.  Yes, she had it all, because she knew what was truly important; she had her faith in God, her family and her sense of humor.  There was never a tear...she was all smiles, love and little jokes. 

Her last words prior to her peaceful passing, “Don’t cover me with dirt, cover me with rose petals.”  On July 5, 2014 Alex, my borther Chuck and I, her six grandchildren and five great grandchildren, along with her sister and her two children and other family celebrated her life and interred her cremains beside our father's grave at Riverside cemetary in Appleton.  Her family and firends took turns covering her urn with the pedals of 12 dozen (that is 144) roses.  Yes, that is somewhat dramatic...but so was our mother!

Her life was truly a wonderful life!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your friendship.  

At this point I will express pride in the families that my brother Chuck and I, together with our wonderful wives have raised.  While the story of much of their lives remains untold, if you are receiving this you know what fantastic people they are.  We are very proud of our children.  However, Chuck and I won't begin to take full credit for them.  It is Ruth who set the moral tone for our families.  She taught us that you work hard, have fun, laugh, treat others with respect, leave the world a better place, and in the end recognize that it is your faith in God and your family that is important. 

Mom fell and broke a hip in November of 2013 and passed relatively quickly and painlessly.  Fortunately only weeks before she had been together with her entire family at Daniel’s wedding.  While there was great joy in being with her family, it was also evident that she wasn’t the same old Ruth.   Her eyesight was failing her, she wasn’t very steady on her feet, and she always felt cold.

Mom and Alex were married 44 years, and their deep love for each other was evident to all.  Shortly after their marriage Ruth’s dear high school friend, Martha Huber visited us in Appleton.  I was probably like 14 years old.  Her husband Tom took me aside and said, “Do you know how lucky you are that your mom found Alex?”  During the intervening 40 years Chuck and I have said the same thing to each other countless times.  In recent years mom declined physically and it was obvious that Alex’s strength allowed mom to live many more years than she would otherwise have.  However, much more importantly, their love for each other added so much more life and joy to her years that they shared together

Mom and Alex had a busy life.  They ran two businesses and still had David at home.  They were both very involved with their churches, and Alex helped mom with a vision of helping Faith Lutheran Church expand their facility.  Together they convinced the church to play a gradual game of monopoly, approaching neighbors and gradually buying up their homes to allow an eventual closing of the street and creation of a large parking lot.  Mom also helped found Meals on Wheels in Appleton, a charity that continues to deliver hot meals to seniors and others who are confined to their homes.  She was also heavily involved in King's Daughters, a Christian based organization that is designed to identify needs in the community and address them. 

But throughout these busy years they found time for fun, and Ruth and Alex saw the world.  There weren’t too many places on the globe that they hadn’t been.  After roughly ten years into their marriage they began to think about having a warmer place to visit in the winter.  They eventually landed on Naples and bought a unit on the 11th floor of the Allegro where they would spend many happy years.  Chuck and my families were big beneficiaries of their Naples home.  The door was always open, and our families enjoyed not only the time on the beautiful beach, but always Gram’s love shown in so many ways, including chocolate chip cookies and her famous toffee. 

Around 1970 mom began seeing Alex Strobel.  Alex had a business selling insurance and commercial real estate, and he was a very successful real estate investor.  They were both in their early 40’s and Alex was single and had lived with his parents for his entire life.  Our mother, who had instructed Chuck and me for our entire lives that we had to marry good Lutheran girls was marrying a Catholic!  I remember very distinctly that one day mom asked me for permission (my blessing) to marry Alex.  While I said, "yes" for her sake, little did I know the blessing Alex would be for me.  I know she had the same conversation with Chuck.

Think about it from his parents’ perspective; they were devout Catholics.  However, Alex’s parents embraced Ruth and she adored them.  On the home front Alex had an instant family!  Mom and Alex were perfect foils, as she was the extrovert and Alex, like most of us, was a little quieter. 

Matilda had passed some years back and Malfred continued to run his medical practice out of his home until he was 89. He was a huge source of support for my mom following our father's death.  During these years we made frequent trips to Granite City to visit him.  They were typically weekend trips that involved long drives for my Mom who had to be already exhausted.  However, mom loved her dad dearly.

After Ralph’s death Ruth was faced with the decision of how to support herself and her young family.  Fortunately she had no understanding of how much schooling her two sons would pursue.  A friend suggested that her personality might be suited to selling real estate.  That was an unusual recommendation in 1962 as it was a man’s business.  However, it was a wonderful piece of advice.  She went to work for one of Ralph’s relatives for a couple of years when, based on her success he told her, “Ruthie, you should have your own firm.”  Mom began by having someone design a powder blue oval sign which became iconic in Appleton, and she called her team, “The Bohl Girls.”  Like her dad, she ran the business out of her home.  She was very successful.  At its height Bohl Realty employed ten full-time women.  She launched the careers of many more.  She was featured on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as she had put together something that was totally different in the Wisconsin business world.  Somewhere I have a picture of many of her Bohl Realty signs.  For now, my old soap box derby car is the best I can come up with.

Ralph lived two decades more than expected, but died in December of 1962.  He was a well-known and well liked business person in Appleton, and the turnout at his funeral and the cemetery was incredible.  Our dad posed this picture months before his death knowing it would be his last picture with his family. 

Chuck was born in 1946 and David in 1954. They built what was for the time a big new house in Appleton.   In addition to working at the shoe store and taking care of the family, Ruth taught typing and shorthand at the vocational school, and was a substitute teacher, teaching Latin among other things.  She was also the organist at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church for many years.  There were many happy years that included an annual trip to the Hamm family cottage in Arcadia, Michigan.

Ralph’s hobby, photography, later turned into a second job as he became a wedding photographer.  He obviously enjoyed photographing his beautiful wife, and there are too many wonderful pictures of her to include here. Please click on this one to enlarge it...this is our father's artwork.

In the end she decided to marry Ralph, knowing she was signing up to become a young widow.  They were married in 1942.

Ruth attended Valparaiso University where she did something that was somewhat remarkable at the time—she majored in business.  During her first year she met Ralph Bohl.  He was from Appleton, Wisconsin where his family had a successful shoe business.  While we have few details of their campus romance, we do know that he proposed.  There were complications.  He was a graduating senior who would not be back on campus, while she was a sophomore.  The greater complication was that he was terminally ill; one of his kidneys wasn’t functional and the other damaged.  He was told he had ten years.  Aunt Eunice tells of the summer of Ruth’s decision.  She obviously and understandably agonized and, while she had little weight to lose, she lost weight. 

When Ruth was five her beloved sister Eunice was born.  While they were sisters, they certainly were not copies of each other.  Ruth’s sister would grow to be quite a bit taller.  And while Ruth became an extraordinary extrovert, her sister was more reserved.  They shared their love for music and both were expert keyboardists and vocalists.  They remained intense lifelong friends, taking turns calling each other on Sundays and with Eunice making her annual winter visit to Naples in their later years

Ruth Hamm was born in April 25, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri.  Her parents were Malfred and Mathilde Carolina Henrietta Holtermann Hamm.  Malfred obtained his medical degree at St. Louis University School of Medicine.  Matilda was a nurse.  Malfred attended to the fallen in France during World War I.  He practiced medicine for 60 years in Granite City, Illinois, where his office was in his home.  Many of his patients were factory workers in the local steel mills, and his grandchildren remember that anytime you returned home patients would be waiting on the porch, some with vegetables which was all they could afford to pay.

Malfred was concerned that Ruth was an overly quiet child.  He set about to fix this.  Ruth often talked about the fact that when her father would go to the bank to do business he made her do all the talking.  Those who knew mom during her adult life would say that Dr. Hamm was certainly successful in his efforts.