Matriarch

A true story by Erick Sahler

She was in her early 20s. They met in high school, fell in love, got married.

Soon after, the second World War broke out and he joined the Marines.

Before he shipped out to the Pacific theater, she went to visit him at training camp in North Carolina. Someone snapped a photo of them on the porch of a boarding house, her gorgeous long legs front and center.

She had traveled before, and she liked it.

When she was eight, she’d come with her family from Omaha to visit her grandmother on the Eastern Shore. That was in 1931. On the return trip, she shared the rumble seat of a Model A with her brother on the dusty roads from Pittsburgh to Detroit, before catching the train back to Nebraska.

A few years later, her family returned to the Eastern Shore for good.

Johnny Testa hired her to be a waitress for the new restaurant he opened with Sammy Cerniglia. It was called in Johnny’s & Sammy’s. She could carry five plates of food on her arms at one time.

After the war, she and her husband opened a lunch counter called Variety Corner on South Division and College, next to Bob Hamill’s barbershop, serving an endless stream of shift workers from the nearby Dresser plant. It was grueling work.

They traveled — mostly hunting trips or to visit family, but also an epic summer-long roadtrip across the United States. She still has the notebook in which all their expenses were carefully recorded.

When their three kids grew up and moved out, they built a modern farm on the edge of town. He named it “Heritage.” Frank Perdue made a personal visit — overstayed his welcome, according to her — and eventually convinced them to raise chickens for him. They also farmed the fields and kept a stable of beautiful horses.

It was the most wonderful place to visit for their five grandchildren. They walked in the woods and helped with farm chores. She cooked marvelous meals for them. And at the end of the day, she’d rub their backs as they fell asleep.

She worked in the catalog department for Sears Roebuck, where she called in all the customer orders each day. Later she worked in the registrar’s office for Salisbury State College.

After he passed away, she continued to travel. She treated her family to holiday visits to New York City, where they ate at Mama Leone’s and atop the World Trade Center, saw “Annie” and “Peter Pan” and the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, and visited the Statue of Liberty and the Macy’s Santa Claus.

She also traveled all over the world with her friends and her daughters. She crossed the Atlantic more than a dozen times. She walked on the Great Wall of China. She marveled at the northern lights from inside the Arctic Circle. She descended the Grand Canyon atop a donkey then rode a whitewater raft from one end to the other. She witnessed the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on its final mission. And she went to Texas to see the bluebonnets bloom.

In February she fell, requiring hip replacement surgery and rehabilitation therapy. Less than three weeks later, she returned home, where, despite coronavirus sequestering, her life has more or less returned to normal.

Today is her 97th birthday. There won’t be a party or family gathering this year, to keep her safe and healthy. But Mom Mom Sahler, I want you to know I love you, and I’m thinking about you and I wish you a happy, happy birthday.

You are an inspiration.

Before my grandfather shipped out to the Pacific theater during World War II, my grandmother went to visit him at training camp in North Carolina.