My Grandmother Odell's Death

I remember well the phone call my father got informing him of his mother's death. We left immediately for Jamestown, ND and he arranged her funeral. This is the very first funeral I had even been to so I was not prepared for what transpired. Grandma was a member of the Presbyterian Church, which still stands today. If memory serves me well, I don't believe that we had a gravesite burial at the time. She died in January so I think it was later in the spring when she was buried.

Grandmother, Edna Odell, and Jamestown ND

This is the Jamestown Hospital as I remember it while visiting with my grandmother.

This is the back of the hospital and tho you cannot see the back door because of the truck in the way, the back door is where my grandmother collapsed on her way to work from a heart attack and eventually died.

This is the Jamestown water tower which was just up the hill from my grandmother's home.

This is the spot where my grandmother's home was located before someone bought it and moved it off the land so the hospital could have more parking space.

I have so many memories of my grandmother and Jamestown, North Dakota. My sister, Kathi, and I usually spent 2 weeks with my grandmother during summer vacation. The pictures I am posting have significant value to me since they represent my grandmother. My grandmother worked and died at the Jamestown Hospital. She worked until the day of her death and she would have been 82 years old in 1966. Her work was her life. She always got up early and would leave for work as a medical records librarian between 5 and 6 a.m. and probably never came home from work until 9 or 10 p.m. My sister and I would go to movies or go swimming or go to the park during the day while she was working. We would go over to the hospital for lunch and dinner with her. At night, we would usually have root beer or orange crush floats for a treat before bed. To this day, I cannot drive by Jamestown on my trips to and from Minnesota without stopping in and reminiscing. My only regret is that I didn't know my grandmother the way I do now back then. She and I have a lot in common I am finding. The home my grandmother lived in was next door to the Jamestown Hospital, however, after her death in 1966, someone bought her home and moved it onto farmlands close by.

Two memories that always remind me of my grandmother and our visits. That is a train whistle and the smell of a hospital. A train whistle because my grandmother lived several blocks from a train station which I believe is no longer in operation and we always heard the train whistle in the distance. The hospital smell is because we spent many times at the hospital with my grandmother. Also, we ate many meals at the hospital with my grandmother but back in the 1950s and 1960s the food tasted so much better than it does now. And the meals were not fast food, but healthy meals.

My Visit to Epping, North Dakota in 2009

I had the opportunity to visit this little community where my grandparents, Edna and Charles, resided. I was given a tour of each of the still standing buildings in which my grandparents may have set foot in. I felt as though I were walking in their footsteps. It was an experience I will not soon forget. The buildings were the same buildings which stood in 1908-1912 that stood at the time my grandparents resided there. It would have been an experience of a lifetime if my grandfathers feed store had been standing but it was destroyed by fire shortly after he died. I have included pictures of the fire of 1912. It is interesting to note that the main street of Epping is still gravel and not paved.

Epping North Dakota Present

Epping North Dakota Past

Odell Pictures

I know these pictures are kind of out of order but I still wanted to post them for you. The pictures are of my grandparents, Edna and Charles Odell and their son, Charles, Jr. The tombstone is one of the three tombstones for my grandfather. It is located in Jamestown, North Dakota.

In Memory of Our Brother, Charles M. Odell, Jr.

My brother was known by "Butchie" by many in my family, though I always thought and still think of him as "Charlie". Charlie was 8 years younger than me, so I didn't know him very well, as well as maybe I should have. He was killed at an early age, 15, when he and a couple of his friends decided to go bicycle riding on a dark night and while rounding a corner a car, which was passing another car, hit him from behind and he was killed within minutes of hitting the pavement. His friends survived as they fell into the ditch. I have always felt guilty because I spent Christmas of 1971 in Hawaii and never got to spend this last holiday with him.

I had an extraordinary experience happen to me at his funeral. I had this indescribable feeling of comfort come over me as if he were telling me "I am all right". I will never forget this experience for as long as I live.

Charlie was the only son of my parents and as you can imagine, it was very hard on my parents to lose him. My Dad was an avid hunter and fisherman and he lost his partner when my brother died. I can well imagine the reunion they must have had when my Dad died in 1992.