LOCK UP TO A FORD TW-15 WE ARE OFFERING 2 - DEMO SPECIALS FORD 7710,4-WD Tractors Equipment \Sj£/i|% fr fw Vf' bsS&^SS ren^JV raws s*, de( * eS *So'S io l£ wo Ingres fts»* \oOO & >ITED AT FANTASTIC SAVINGS I * I sss j^w»»^» since i TRACTOR CO. | 1921 "y 717-949-6501 NEW TOLL FREE NO. 1-800-822-2152 Rt. 419 Between Schaefferstown & Cornwall, Lebanon County FORD TW-15,4-WD PARTS ★ SAI.ES ★ SERVICE 4 WD With Cab And ormance Monitor FANTASTIC SAVINGS On This Unit! ONE ONLY Plus All Programs Available Liinr»< «r Farming, Saturday, Novambar 10,1984—817 Barbara Mummert (Continued from Page B 14) at home provided the security and stability that her children needed at this time. Barbara had been involved in all aspects of the farming operation with her husband. This left her with the knowledge and skills she needed, but it was hard for her to function independently when she had been used to “doing everything together. ” Barbara is very candid and open in reflecting on her early months of widowhood. She believes that what she has learned and experienced may help someone else to cope with this crisis. One of the most difficult aspects was dealing with her children’s reactions to their father’s death. The teen-agers had the most dif ficult adjustment. John was 16 and Harold was 14. The boys had just begun a phase of being “buddies” with their father when he died. John found this extremely difficult to handle. He reacted with anger which he turned into constructive energy as he took over the “man” of the farm. Describing that time today, John says: “You leam to grow up fast, and it is scary.” John learned to run the farm equipment and a neighbor taught him how to plow and to do the fieldwork. While John expressed his anger outwardly, Harold, then 14, withdrew. He would go to his room and came out only when had to do something. Harold chose to deny his father’s death for some time. He was always waiting for his dad to come down the road or in from the bam. Todd, who was 7, reacted by becoming “devilish.” Barbara Sue was only one year old. She had been her “daddy’s girl.” Barbara responded to these reactions by supporting all her children in their coping mechanisms and encouraging them to talk with her. She also reinforced continually that they were a family and would survive this together. In addition to losing their father, Butch’s father had passed away only a few months before Butch. He too had cancer. The children faced the loss of both father and grandfather. The most difficult part of this crisis for Barbara was being a single woman in “a man’s world.” “You find out who your real friends are,” is Barbara’s sum mary of the situation. She was surprised to find out that some of her “friends” were not around when she desperately needed them and other people surprised her with their support. At a time when she needed support, assistance, and mostly understanding as she adapted to a new role, these things seemed hard to find in many settings. One of the best sources of support was other Landrace breeders. She received cards, letters, and even money from across the nation. These were the people John turned to when he had to learn the paperwork involved in a purebred operation. Throughout Pennsylvania other hog breeders supported her too. Probably the most difficult thing she had to deal with were the wives of many of these breeders. “They didn’t seem to want you out there with their men. The last thing I wanted at that time was their husbands. I only wanted to be treated like any other hog breeder and to have some respect.” Barbara found a lot of social stigmas to deal with. She was no longer invited to dances or other people’s homes. She had many people look at John and react as though he were her husband and she had married a younger man. One of the most difficult situations was when she went to purchase a new truck a few years
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