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Show in my father's house/ 50 Aunt Gerda had married my father in her late twenties, when other Mormon women might have pined into spinsterhood. But she trained her efficient nature into a secretarial career which maintained her independence throughout life. In retrospect, Gerda claimed that she always knew she would marry a man with other wives -- even though the Principle was revealed to her only weeks before she entered it. When Brother Musser performed the ceremony, he promised my father, "This woman will give you all the wives you deserve." Gerda took Brother Musser's pronouncement literally and soon recruited others into my father's family. In the early days at the white house when all the women lived together, Aunt Gerda ran my father's family like a drill instructor. She owned ideas on everything from proper budgeting to meal planning, from entertainment to family routines. Soon she established the wives in a schedule: Each woman took a week in the kitchen, preparing meals, cleaning cupboards and scrubbing dishes. Another week she'd be 'kitchen helper' -- setting tables, drying dishes and cleaning the dining room. Other weeks eased by with only a bathroom or stairway to worry about, leaving time for her to sew or decorate her bedroom or spend special time with her children. But Gerda had no children. Time hung like a shroud around her. Even though Brother Musser had promised in a blessing that she would someday become 'a mother in Israel,' the waiting |
