My hero is a woman I have never met. (Jona-Lynn Hagerstrom)

January 8, 2015January 8, 2015 ~ myworldinyellow

You know how we elevate historical figures to such high levels and we have never met them? It is like we can just assume from the stories about them that they were amazing people. Basically we make heroes out of people we’ve never met. Well this is how I feel about my Grandma Joan Hagerstrom (She is where the first part of my name comes from). She is a woman I have never met but if I can be half the woman she was I will be more than pleased with myself.
 
My grandmother died when my dad was 13 so I never had a chance to meet her, however I do know all 5 of the boys she raised (my dad and his 4 older brothers) and for a hot second I knew the man she was married to (my Grandpa Roy). Just from knowing them I know she must have been an amazing woman. Grandpa was so in love with her, Joan was literally the love of his life. When he was in the hospice house (during the last few days of his life) he would wake up and tell everyone that he needed a haircut or a shave. He wanted these things because he knew he was going to see her soon and he wanted to look good for her. All my uncles and my dad are sweet men with very big hearts. That alone speaks volumes about who she was. It also tells me that she was a woman who could hold her own because she lived in a house with 6 men.

*I want to be a woman who is very loving but is also strong.*

The stories of my grandmother are what makes me want to be like her. Grandpa would tell stories about growing up in New Jersey and how as a young man he worked for a gas station. He remembered this one family (the Walls) who had two little girls that would come to the gas station regularly. One of the little girls Joan would always make kissy faces at him and she and her sister would giggle to each other in the back seat when he would pump their gas. Grandpa never thought anything of it because they were little girls and he was a teen. That’s when WWII happened and my grandfather like so many young men of the time left for the war.

When he came back from the war he noticed that a very beautiful woman would walk by his house every day. He soon found out that that woman was Joan Wall. She would time her trips to the market around the time she knew he would be out in the garden (my grandfather was all about composting, that is one of the biggest memories I have of him). She did this for a few months and the only response she got was him stopping to talk to her every once in a while. One day she stopped at his fence, as she walked to the market, looked in him the eye and said “You know Roy I am 18 now!!!” and walked away.

*I want to be a woman who knows what she wants and is stubborn enough to get it*

Apparently on their first date (which soon followed that interaction) grandma was so beautiful that grandpa was distracted and drove over the highway median… I’ve always thought that that actually meant that they were making out while he was driving.
My grandmother was a devoutly catholic woman. She raised all 5 of her sons in the church and even sent the older ones to catholic school. My dad was an altar boy as I’m sure were some of his older brothers.

*I want to be a woman who raises her house hold in faith.*

My dad (her youngest son) was born in 61 so Joan lived in a very different world then we do. Everything was different including civil rights. For whatever reason my grandmother ONLY used black doctors. I don’t really know why she liked black doctors a lot more than white doctors I just know that this is something that was important to her. So much so, one of my uncles was born in the basement of the hospital because black doctors were not allowed to perform surgeries where the white doctors did.

*I want to be a woman who has convictions and sticks to them no matter circumstances.*

To be honest most of my life I saw her as this perfect and magical woman not unlike Snow White or Clara from “The Nutcracker”. Maybe she was (I certainly hope so), regardless I know that she was a strong woman, wife and mother. That alone is reason enough to look up to her and want to model myself after her.

*END NOTES* There are something’s about my grandmother that I’m not sure if they are true or just legend. I guess when one of her sons would spill something (which I’m sure happened a lot) she would say “Little girls NEVER spill”. I have also heard that the Christmas when she and my grandpa were engaged she felt like he was dragging his feet and she said something to the effect of “do you even want to marry me?” to him. I’ve also heard that her favorite color was green.