Esther Alice (Mickey) Avery

Esther Alice Avery (Mickey), 97, decided to join her large family on the Other Side September 20, 2015 from Albuquerque, New Mexico where she resided since 2006. The youngest of 13 children, she was born in 1918 in Milan, Minnesota with her twin sister, Ruth. She is survived by her children, Patty Sais-Pederson and Mike Spillane, daughter in-law Judy Spillane; grandchildren Julie Forcier and husband Dave; Melissa Boeser and husband Greg; Amy Pepich and husband Dan; Diane Sheehy and husband Craig; Alison Mostert and husband Rene; and Dante Sais. Eight beautiful great grandchildren round out her family. Mickey learned to paint in her sixties, enjoyed showing her art, and sold many of her favored landscape oils of mountains and valleys. Her career resume includes waitressing, operating a restaurant with her twin sister, and working at her husband’s gas station before retirement in Arizona. When family members thought it would be better for her to be closer to family, she was determined not to assist in the sale of her house and the move. So she didn’t. Kicking and screaming, she arrived In Albuquerque, September 1, 2006 where a pleasant place was prepared for her at Brookdale Place, formerly Sunrise Assisted Living, which in short order she called home and grew to love. Through the years, she traveled to her parents’ homeland, Germany, and other European countries where she had the time of her life. She is remembered for her fiesty spirit and her sharp sense of humor. A few years ago, she was asked for a life review. Here are some of the highlights in her own words: “My dad was also a cobbler and repaired shoes for many in the extended family. He was never paid for his labor or any of the materials. Ruth and I helped him as much as we could.” “My mother would go to the garden to pick cucumbers to make pickles. Ruth and I would go along to see what she was doing. Once when she was gone, we went out to look and there were no more cucumbers to be picked, so we went to the watermelon patch and picked every last watermelon. Oh boy, we got a spanking that we never forgot.” “We had a big farm in Ortonville, half a section. We had five acres of apple trees, 281 trees. We also had seven more trees down where we kept the pigs. Pigs would rub against the trees and cause the apples to fall and then they would go and eat that choice food. Pigs are a lot smarter than people give them credit for being. We kids had to take care of the orchard when people came on Sundays to buy apples. We never advertised but people knew that they could get apples from the Zempels. There were times when there must have been 50 cars there to buy apples. We were supposed to see that people didn’t shake the trees to make the apples fall because then they could buy “windfall” apples at a lower price. But we were too young for that type of job and never said anything to the people. Today I would not be afraid to tell them where to go.” “Brother Ed didn’t come out when people were buying apples but at night he might be out with a gun scaring away anyone who might be trying to steal our apples. But then we were kids too, and we would pile into a car and go steal apples some other place. The grass was greener on the other side of the fence, we thought.” “Toys? We didn’t know what toys were. We made our own toys. We made paper dolls by cutting them out of a catalog and put them on paste board so we could really play with them. We got to talking with Jean one day and she said, “Do you remember that we played with paper dolls until we were 16 years old?” and we said, “Yup, we remember then.” One time Curly came to our house and he found Ruth and me playing with our paper dolls. We were so ashamed that we tore them up and never played with them again.” “Ruth and I were the only ones to go to high school. But we only went though the third year and then we went to Minneapolis. We couldn’t find any work around Ortonville. We both did housework.” “I went to Phoenix. Ruth and I started a little drive-in restaurant with seating inside. After we sold out, I married Smitty and worked my buns off at the gas station doing the book work and stuff. There was a man who ran a fruit stand who came to the station often. He was an alcoholic and had a brother who was kind of churchified; he belonged to the Baptist Church, and he also owned a fruit stand in another location. The alcoholic would come to the station and buy gasoline. I took care of the credit cards, the banking, and all of that. One day the alcoholic came in and said, “I had better pay my bill,” so I started looking through the cards and found them but he had signed them--I. P. Freely. I said, “Oh, you devil.” I forget what his name was.” We miss you, Mom, and will remember your laughter, your humor, and your stories. Mickey’s family would like to thank Brookdale Place of Albuquerque for the love and care they showered on our mom. A private ceremony will be held in Payson, Arizona at a time to be determined.