The following insertion typifies my father - he always worked hard, criticized little, and helped anyone in need without question. I am certain he had no enemies - only those who held him in high regard.
Through the years I am mindful of many sacrifices he made for his family. But, this one incident in particular typified Dad's compassion and selflessness. My brother, Raymond, a year younger than I incurred a serious eye injury. While carpentering, a nail being driven into a board splintered and a piece entered his eyeball. There followed weeks in the hospital at Iowa City and the loss of sight in the eye. The only hope was for a transplant. Many times one waits long weeks and months for a donor. And, for my brother it was no exception. In his case it required two cornea transplants before sight again was returned to the eye.
It was at this period of time that Dad went to the head nurse in charge at Iowa City and offered one of his eyes for his son. This must have greatly stunned the nurse, and she responded gently, "Mr. Keller we're here to save sight, not to take it." Dad died in 1971. Before his death he had signed a donor card to donate his eyes for someone needing a transplant. Someone else is seeing today because our Dad cared.
My mother, Grace Phillips Keller, turned uncertified realator when she sold her home in Greenfield in about 1975. She was a super flower grower. All of her adult life wherever she lived luxuriant flowers bloomed and thrived in her garden. She had a green thumb, and never seemed to mind the hours of hard work, the hot summer sun, or the wind that disarranged her hair. Growing flowers was her hobby, and to her the work was joy as she watched a delicate rose unfurl, a delphinium burst into blossom, the marigolds mix their brilliant colors with the sunshine, and the tiny violas whisper in the breezes.
But, a real estate person? What could she possibly know about selling a house? Yet to the surprise of her entire familly, one day she decided to sell her home and move to the village in south Greenfield. This was a few years after Dad had died, and the retirement complex with inhabitants her age beckoned. She could put aside the toils of gardening, lawn care, home upkeep. The family raised some eyebrows and smiled wisely. Grandma couldn't sell the house herself; she would be better advised to get a realator involved.
However, life has some surprising twists, and just one week later she announced she had sold her house. And, what was more amazing was that the sale price was twice what anyone would have imagined! How did she accomplish this surprising thing? She simply advertised in the local newspaper, and the buyer was an older lady who loved flowers as much as my mother did. She came to see the house and was taken by the beauty of the gorgeous flower garden so much so that she almost immediately made the purchase. Together they negotiated the deal to the satisfaction of both without benefit of a realator.
We still scratch our heads in wonderment that toil and love of the earth which produced such beauty could actually sell a home so quickly and at such a handsome profit. My mother, Grace Keller, died February 13, l985, and I am sure her heaven is filled with wonderful blooming flowers.
Buried in the Fontanelle, IA cemetery
George was cremated and the ashes strewn - Manitowish, Wisc.
George and Gertrude Maher adopted their children, Richard Wayne and Patricia JoAnn.
Worked as a re-weaver in Des Moines.
Carolyn Mae Beck died of lupus in 1965. She is burried in Sunset Memorial Gardens, Des Moines, IA
Dr. of Veterinary Medicine.
He was a lawyer.