Rupprecht Blog: Indiana Vacation: Day 4

After our time in Nauvoo, we headed for Indiana to meet my sisters, Laurie and Kath, as well as my brother Mike. We arrived in Lowell at around 9PM. We hit some snowy weather the last couple hours so it took us a little bit longer than planned. It was great to see everybody and we spent a couple hours visiting and catching up. Our last visit was back in 2004. Mom is looking better than I expected. The cancer is flaring up, and has spread to her lungs. She is back in chemotherapy and we are hoping for the best. She was very sick last week with the flu, and we were all very concerned. Her spirits lifted, however, when she heard that we were all coming out to see her.

Today my sisters and I (along with Michelle and the girls) spent the day re-visiting our childhood homes as well as various other places in our hometowns. It was quite a surreal experience as many memories came flooding back to me. We grew up in a rural Indiana town called Schererville, which has a population of around 6,000. We spent some time in cemeteries where we visited the graves of families, friends, and classmates. I was able to visit, for the 1st time, the gravesites of my maternal grandparents, Adolph and Erma Graper. They passed away in 1992 and 1993, respectively. I loved my grandfather and have many fond memories of him as a young boy. I used to love going over to Grandma and Grandpa Graper's house when I was little. I was able to visit the graves of several other relatives as well, both direct and distant. Again, I felt the Spirit strongly and had a strong impression to do the temple work for my ancestors. This work has not been done, and I have spent the last few months putting together my ancestry files so that I can take the names to the temple and perform these saving ordinances for my family. It was a testimony to me as I was inspired about certain individuals as we visited their resting places.

This used to be the drug store
where I would go to buy candy.
I would get .25 allowance each
week and I would go down
and buy 25 pieces of
penny candy. Life was
simple then!

This used to be the barber shop where
I would walk to get my haircut. I
remember my mom giving me some
change to go down and get my
haircut. There was a wait for
the barber, so I ended up
spending the change on soda
pop from the pop machine
inside the barber shop.
Needless to say, I came home
without a haircut!
I got a sore behind from that one!

The house where I was born.

This is a sepulcher in a Catholic cemetery not
far from our house. We used to play
in this. There is a statue of Jesus
praying inside...it is a depiction
of the Garden of Gethsemane.

Statue in sepulcher

After visiting the cemeteries, we headed out to Winfield Township where both sets of my grandparents were from. We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Graper's house (long since bought by my Aunt Carol after their passing) and walked through the house again. It was very emotional for us siblings to be there again after over 35 years since our last visit.

Grandma and Grandpa Graper

We then headed up the road a couple of miles and dropped in on my fraternal grandmother, Mickey Riley (my last name used to be Riley; I was adopted by my stepfather when I was 12). I had not seen my Grandma Riley for close to 37 years. We stopped at the farm where we thought she lived (it had been over 36 years!), and my sister Laurie and I walked up to door and knocked. A very old woman answered the door, and it was my Grandma Riley. We introduced ourselves and she invited us in. The rest of the family soon followed and we had a wonderful visit. The house was just as I remembered it from when I was 5 years old. Grandma Riley was very sweet and was very happy to see her grandson after so many years, and was happy to meet her great-grandchildren, too. After a while her daughter, my aunt Carol Sue, and my Uncle Jim came over to check on her (there were strange cars in the driveway, so they came by to see what was going on!) and we were able to get re-acquainted with my aunt and uncle as well. Emilie took to Aunt Carol Sue very quickly as you can see in the photo below. I was a little nervous to go out there, but I am grateful we did! The barn is in a big pile of timber, as my dad Jim and his brothers had come over a few days earlier and pulled it down with trucks as it was unstable. One of my earliest memories of this place is when I was attacked by a German Shepherd at the age of 4; I had a large gash in my head for weeks. They were unable to sew it up for fear of rabies, and had to quarantine the dog as well.