Verna Lindley 2/17/1913 - 11/30/09

My grandma Verna passed away peacefully in her sleep on November 30th, 2009. She was an exceptional wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend to many. She was a talented artist who lived a very full, meaningful, and beautiful life.

Link to her obituary:

Click here to read


I was honored to write her eulogy and share it at her funeral:

Socks In Our Shirts

A Eulogy for Grandma Vern

December 5, 2009

Boy did we look forward to visiting your house grandma. As kids that two-hour drive to Osage felt like days but oh the excitement when we got close. We would play ‘I spy’ too see who could spot the tall pines first as we came over the hill. I can still see your face light up in the kitchen window as we pulled in the drive. Out you would run with hugs for everyone. We will miss those hugs grandma.

Sweet smells welcomed us in the breezeway. Rosettes, Krumkake, and lefsa covered the counter tops and kitchen table. Good old fashion Norwegian cooking …. by a through and through German. Now thanks to your mentoring grandma, and grandpa’s Norwegian influence, generations of Kricks will be passing down lefsa making tradition for years to come.

Your house…so warm… so cozy…. so full of love…and so CLEAN. Grandma was meticulous! She once said that you could judge the way a woman keeps house by how clean her door sill was when you entered. The door sill…WHO cleans the door sill…? Well grandma, I think it’s finally time I come clean….I only scrub the door sill when you visit ☺

Grandma, remember how we used to spend a whole week with cousins in the summer? How could you forget, right? In addition to your run of the mill mayhem, you and grandpa were treated to grand performances out in front of the pines and countless games of pool in the basement. And just for the record grandma, it was Stacy. It was Stacy who broke the pool cue.

But the best place of all to play was in the closet. The basement closet was where all of Joy’s old formal gowns were stored. We would spend hours crawling in and out the layers of tooling and holding fashion shows with our tops stuffed with your stockings. Remember that?!

After dinner you would take us for LONG walks down the dirt road … in hindsight…clearly a last ditched effort to wear us all down for the night. We would pick bouquets of weeds and tall grasses, which you would happily arrange in vases when we returned home. We would play Uno to pass time until it got dark…because all the grandchildren knew that the very best part of being at your house happened after dark…Grandma’s yard had FIREFLYS … LOTS of them!

As soon as it got dark, off we would run chasing fireflies midst the tall pines in the backyard. With pride and hands full, we would run up to the house to find you and grandpa quietly sitting in the breezeway, waiting with our jars, holes carefully poked in the top. Eventually, you would usher us all back inside for hot chocolate and a rousing round of hide the thimble. We would sip as we played, begging you to hide it one last time before bed.

With the toss of a coin we’d decide who slept up and who slept down. My favorite memory of all is crawling up into the high beds upstairs. Waiting, all cozy in bed, I would listen to you clean up the kitchen, pull the door shut in the breezeway, turn out the lights, and quietly walk down the hallway. In you would sneak, book in one hand and jar in the other. The fireflies sparkled as I curled up under you arm and listened. When the story ended, you would carefully place the jar up in the windowsill and we would pray; “Now I lay me down to sleep”… Inevitably, I would wake in the morning to find an empty jar; and so the chasing began... again.

Thank you grandma, for the loving memories, for the wonderful lefsa tradition, and for so many pieces of beautiful art you have shared with us all. My home is filled with your work; your Hardanger and Rosemaling will be passed down to my children and grandchildren. And grandma, I will be sure they know too, the importance of a clean door sill.

kellie krick oborn