Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

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In honor of my mother, Dorothy Anne Marie Hanlon Schutz,
on what would have been her 100th birthday.

Born in the wake of WWI
And the great Influenza Pandemic
The oldest of seven – her identity and job was to be ‘the oldest’
To keep track of her brothers and sisters
To be the first and forge the trail

A Bachelor’s Degree in 1939 at age 20
A driver of convoys cross country in WWII
The first woman to head her government department
10 years in the work force

Charmed by a precocious ‘youngest child’ and married
She gave birth to 5 children in 7 years
She experienced the loss of miscarriage

She buried a son who was only 20
And stood next to her first born, a daughter
When she buried a son who was only 2

She organized people and stockrooms
She chaired committees
She drove us to all our activities
She raised us alone every summer for 6 years
So Dad could get a Masters Degree

She was never a ‘Martha Stewart’ type
She was not a ‘warm & fuzzy’ mom
She was all business and analytical
She was no nonsense

She rarely yelled – she didn’t have to
A quiet, calm, icy voice was far more potent
Each word articulated with deadly precision
Oh, we knew we when we were in trouble

She never talked behind anyone’s back
You always knew where you stood…for better or worse

The things that made me crazy growing up I now see in myself
I look in the mirror and see her eyes looking back
I hear her words coming out of my mouth
I can organize people and stockrooms

She gave what she was able to give
She made choices and moved forward
Never looking back asking ‘what if….?’

Happy 100th Birthday, Mom!

Dorothy Anne Marie Hanlon Schutz
November 18, 1918 – October 17, 2005

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