Think of a person who is good and kind. Someone who does not lose her temper. Someone who always gives the benefit of the doubt. Someone who always makes you feel good about yourself. My grandma lowed people and was the "goodest" (I know that is not a word), person that I have ever known. Doesn't everyone need a grandma like that?
Her parents came to the United Stated from the town of Pilsen in Bohemia (present day Chechia). They settled in the Chicago neighborhood that was named Pilsen. Immigrants to Chicago settled in neighborhoods populated by others of like nationalities.
Anna Florence Sedivec was born in Chicago on July 11, 1907. She was the oldest of four children. She had two brother and a sister. One of the brothers died during the flu epidemic of 1918, and later, her sister was put into a mental institution where she spent the rest of her life.
My grandma's family did not always have much money. One day, she came home from school and sat down for dinner, which was rabbit that night. After dinner, she discovered that their dinner had been her pet rabbit. She could never eat rabbit again after that.
She was only able to complete sixth grade at which time she had to drop out of school to work to help support the family. She did learn to type and take shorthand, so she was able to get a job working in an office. A man named Dan Ryan helped her get a job working for the city of Chicago. She started out as a typist and was eventually promoted to the position of supervisor for the Property Tax division. Later, in 1972, the city discontinued sponsorships and began giving civil service exams to employees to retain their jobs. With her sixth-grade education, she was unable to pass the civil service exam, so she retired.
She met her future husband, Joe Kalivoda, on a trip to St. Joe, Michigan. The two became inseparable. He was 21years old and she was twenty. He wanted to marry her but wanted to wait until she was 21 years old. They were married on October 15, 1928. While I was able to find some information about him on ancestry.com, much of his life remains a mystery to me.
A year later, the Great Depression began. This was such a horrible time. I interviewed my grandma about her experience of the Great Depression when I was in school. Because she worked for the city, her job was secure. Her husband, however, was a member of a labor union, and he lost his job. He got a job through President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a laborer. She told me people were committing suicide by jumping out of buildings' windows because they lost their life savings.
My mother was born to my grandparents in 1935. They lived in an apartment on the South Side of Chicago. My mother grew up and married my father. At age 54, my grandma had a major stroke and had to learn how to talk, walk and write again. A year later Grandma became a widow. Her beloved Joe had died of a massive stroke.
My parents bought a house, and Grandma went to live with them in August, 1961. I was born in December and my mother said that having her mother there was so helpful. Grandma was absolutely over the moon about becoming a grandmother!
In 1972, my parents were going through a divorce and my mother had to go back to work. As God's providence would have it, this was the same time that my grandmother failed her civil service test and had to retire. Now she could be at home to raise my brother and me.
She was the best grandma who cooked fantastic dinners, make cookies or cakes for when we came home from school. Every Sunday morning we would walk together to church. I would spend hours in her bedroom listening to her stories about her life when she was younger. Other times we play board games or watched TV together. I felt so lucky to have her living with us.
On May 25, 1979, my grandmother died in our home of a heart attack. It happened to be the same day there was a tragic plan crash at O'Hare airport. The ambulance took Grandma to the nearest hospital . Since well lived very close to the airport, the media (who were waiting to see if any plane crash survivors would arrive) filmed my Grandma's body as it was brought to the hospital, reporting that she might have been a plane crash survivor. Even though I only had seventeen years with her, she was the most influential person in my life. She was the person who showed me unconditional love, and she always believed in me. She also showed me how to show love to others.
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