If you would like to download the entire file at once (6.3 MB), click here. If you prefer to to access the story online, then keep reading below and in the following installments over the next week or two as we share Ruth’s Story (and whatever photographs I can dig up).
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CHILDHOOD DAYS
It was a clear crisp day in the country home of Cornelius and Malinda Franz Buller, located in between two small Nebraska towns of Lushton and Grafton. With six small children aged nine years to eleven months old, there was never a lack of excitement going on in the home. But this day in February was especially preoccupied and intense. The doctor had come to the home to deliver a baby and all the children were astir with excitement while adults were concerned about boiled water for sterilizing, timing of the pains, and such. This made for an intensely busy household. A cry in the air brought about smiles to the faces of the children and relief to those involved in the delivering of a baby girl on that February 16, 1937. She was named Ruth C. and so was beginning of the seventh child in the Chris Buller home.
There were to be five girls total in this home, interspersed between the three boys, as follows: Matilda, Esther, Daniel, Darlene, Carl, Wayne, Ruth and Alma. Although all started school in Lushton Grade School, because the town had dwindled, the school was closed and the younger three [actually, five] attended High School at Grafton. Although buses were available for the youngest, all of them at some time had the privilege of walking the two and one-half miles up the hill to Lushton school in summer and winter.
Low German was the tongue used most by the family in the beginning. The oldest girls chattered with friends each in their own language and had to learn the English language as they went to school. Lushton had a large two-story building—lower grades downstairs and high school upstairs. There were the usual dilemmas of racism—during the World War II years the little German kids were called names to imply their status with the ill thought of Germany! The Bullers were amongst the very small minority of German background kids and these name callings were always painful!
School always leaves so many memories. I remember loving math and writing stories. I wrote a 30–40 page handwritten book which I demonstrated with pictures of horses and horse races. I gave it to my teacher, approximately 5th or 6th grade, and she graded it for me. Her encouragement was rewarding to me and she encouraged me to continue writing. I regret that when we moved to California from Kansas, we decided all unnecessary things needed to be discarded and that was one of the things I burnt. How I would love to go back to see some of the work I had done then!
Besides reading and story writing, we played many games. Our playground had swings, merry-go-rounds and baseball fields. Recess had us playing the usual childhood games, the usual choosing of sides and the hurt feelings. We had one teacher for all eight grades and there was always activity, noises and competition. My grades were always high and I don't recall having to really study hard.
My favorite activity was reading books. I was always the top reader in my class winning the prizes for a contest which often was another book. We knew each other well and in our small community we usually only had a few friends our age. My best friend was Carolyn Stark. She had only sisters and I can remember many times when we would play in an empty trailer or make a stage of some kind in the yard, acting like movie stars. We were enthralled by them even though we never had seen one in a movie or in person.
I was tall and muscular, pretty well coordinated, I did very well in the competitive girls volleyball teams between the schools in that territory. I remember the bus rides to the towns, the great sharp spikes by our team player, Joan Arp and the joy of winning many games. Our class consisted of three boys and myself and I found myself pretty much at the head of the class. Our classes in high school were usually two grades grouped together.
Perhaps the most difficult time was when I finished ninth grade at a new school in Grafton. Because things were happening to my body that were puzzling, I spent most of that summer going to doctors for tests. When it became apparent that there was something that needed more specialized treatment, I was sent to stay with an Aunt and Uncle in Omaha, Nebraska so that a hospital that trained physicians could do some special tests. They planned a surgery to explore and to take out my appendix. That revealed very little.
At that point, I was kept in the hospital while testing was done on a much larger scale. I became a favorite with the nurses and got to do odd jobs for them, a real help in dispelling some of the boredom. Tests eventually revealed that there was something wrong in my adrenal gland and another surgery was scheduled. They were surprised to discover that the adrenal gland on the left side was filled with tumors.
School started that fall and by now I was anxious to get back to my friends and studies. I was recuperating in the hospital so they could keep a close check on me. I remember Ed and Esther Thorne coming to visit me—I was approximately 150 miles away from home, (I was lonesome and homesick.) I was hoping I could go home with them. They waited around for the results from a test doctors took but it showed that there was still something in my body that shouldn't be there. When the doctors told me they would probably have to do another surgery, I was one low chick! I thought I was probably stuck in that hospital forever!
This next surgery was scheduled and it was decided that while they had gone into the left side before, the subsequent surgery would be across the middle of my stomach so they could explore both sides. There they found several tumors the size of large grapefruit up inside my rib cage—far enough up on the left side that it had been missed the first time.
Finally, I believe it was close to Christmastime, I was able to go home. I had to wear a girdle but healing and health came back swiftly and before the season was over I was again playing volleyball, I caught up with my schoolwork (I had done some of the school work in the hospital) and I was fast back to my normal routine. Although all the problems caused by those tumors never were totally corrected, the direction that it had caused my body to go because of the hormonal imbalance was corrected and I learnt to live gratefully as I had met young people in the hospital with much worse situations than I had to bear.
While I was in the hospital, I met a lady named Irma. Her family came to see her and during that time, her son David took an interest in me. He was at least four years older, but it certainly added a dimension to my stay that I liked. He came to Lushton to visit me and I remember staying with his folks once when I needed to be back for checkups. He was thinking of marriage and I was too young to be thinking about that at this time, and since he became quite pushy, I squashed the relationship.
Revival meetings played a central part in my life in my growing up years. At age eleven, The Musical Morgans came to our small community to preach to us the wonderful news of salvation. Our entire family went forward during the course of those meetings, myself to accept Christ as my personal Saviour.
Approximately the same time, we began to look for a church that would help us to grow in the Lord. The folks had heard Pastor Peter Friesen on the radio and they decided to go to the church in Friend, Nebraska. It was summer and the Friend Bible Church was going to send their young people to camp the following week. They invited us to stay for a church potluck that Sunday and talked my folks into letting us three younger kids go to Polk Bible Camp the following Sunday for a week. We had no idea how wonderful that week would be for us—and we were privileged to go to future camps where long term decisions were made to serve the Lord—and once I even came home to admit a lie I told to our small town grocery store owner.
This church, even though 60 miles from our farm, became our regular church body. Their friendliness, love for the Lord and encouragement brought us coming back time and again. Eventually our parents moved to Friend after all of us kids were gone.
The Musical Morgans were having revival meetings in Henderson and by now I was a senior in high school. Our friend Wanda Janzen Goertzen took us with her to one of the meetings. My sister, Alma, saw a guy in the choir that Wanda knew and she liked. She talked Wanda into trying to hook her up with a date with him. Roger Regier was looking for his brothers and came by in his car. Wanda also knew him and stopped him to talk to him about the date. He promised he would see what he could do if I would go out with him. Roger was not able to get “Clyde” as he already was going steady, but he got Wayne Martens to come along and Alma and I had our first blind dates—and our parents said we could go! Guess the fact that they were Mennonite Brethren did give them some confidence in them. This was the beginning of something much more permanent for both of us!
I graduated that spring. The next fall, I left to go to college at Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I begged to be able to go to Tabor College where Roger would be attending but my parents did not agree. Roger and I were in love so we waited it out this year and planned a wedding for the following September. Alma married Wayne after her graduation from high school in June, 3 months before we got married.
I cared for two Jewish preschool children in their home for my room and board and a little spending money at college. They were good children and it was a good experience. My parents paid the tuition. I remember bus rides to school in below freezing weather, but mostly I remember the friendships I made, several of which I kept in touch with over the years.
Planning a wedding absorbed most of my time while working a summer time job of auditing books for a furniture store in Minneapolis. I shopped for my trousseau and relished in spending money that I earned myself! My parents could not afford two wedding gowns in one year, so I needed to redo Alma’s dress to fit me. I made a sweetheart collar instead of the stand up collar she had to be different, plus I used a different veil.
 |
Lushton schoolhouse |
Low German was the tongue used most by the family in the beginning. The oldest girls chattered with friends each in their own language and had to learn the English language as they went to school. Lushton had a large two-story building—lower grades downstairs and high school upstairs. There were the usual dilemmas of racism—during the World War II years the little German kids were called names to imply their status with the ill thought of Germany! The Bullers were amongst the very small minority of German background kids and these name callings were always painful!
School always leaves so many memories. I remember loving math and writing stories. I wrote a 30–40 page handwritten book which I demonstrated with pictures of horses and horse races. I gave it to my teacher, approximately 5th or 6th grade, and she graded it for me. Her encouragement was rewarding to me and she encouraged me to continue writing. I regret that when we moved to California from Kansas, we decided all unnecessary things needed to be discarded and that was one of the things I burnt. How I would love to go back to see some of the work I had done then!
Besides reading and story writing, we played many games. Our playground had swings, merry-go-rounds and baseball fields. Recess had us playing the usual childhood games, the usual choosing of sides and the hurt feelings. We had one teacher for all eight grades and there was always activity, noises and competition. My grades were always high and I don't recall having to really study hard.
My favorite activity was reading books. I was always the top reader in my class winning the prizes for a contest which often was another book. We knew each other well and in our small community we usually only had a few friends our age. My best friend was Carolyn Stark. She had only sisters and I can remember many times when we would play in an empty trailer or make a stage of some kind in the yard, acting like movie stars. We were enthralled by them even though we never had seen one in a movie or in person.
I was tall and muscular, pretty well coordinated, I did very well in the competitive girls volleyball teams between the schools in that territory. I remember the bus rides to the towns, the great sharp spikes by our team player, Joan Arp and the joy of winning many games. Our class consisted of three boys and myself and I found myself pretty much at the head of the class. Our classes in high school were usually two grades grouped together.
 |
Grafton school, built in 1914 and now closed for many years photograph © dahusker on panoramio |
At that point, I was kept in the hospital while testing was done on a much larger scale. I became a favorite with the nurses and got to do odd jobs for them, a real help in dispelling some of the boredom. Tests eventually revealed that there was something wrong in my adrenal gland and another surgery was scheduled. They were surprised to discover that the adrenal gland on the left side was filled with tumors.
School started that fall and by now I was anxious to get back to my friends and studies. I was recuperating in the hospital so they could keep a close check on me. I remember Ed and Esther Thorne coming to visit me—I was approximately 150 miles away from home, (I was lonesome and homesick.) I was hoping I could go home with them. They waited around for the results from a test doctors took but it showed that there was still something in my body that shouldn't be there. When the doctors told me they would probably have to do another surgery, I was one low chick! I thought I was probably stuck in that hospital forever!
This next surgery was scheduled and it was decided that while they had gone into the left side before, the subsequent surgery would be across the middle of my stomach so they could explore both sides. There they found several tumors the size of large grapefruit up inside my rib cage—far enough up on the left side that it had been missed the first time.
Finally, I believe it was close to Christmastime, I was able to go home. I had to wear a girdle but healing and health came back swiftly and before the season was over I was again playing volleyball, I caught up with my schoolwork (I had done some of the school work in the hospital) and I was fast back to my normal routine. Although all the problems caused by those tumors never were totally corrected, the direction that it had caused my body to go because of the hormonal imbalance was corrected and I learnt to live gratefully as I had met young people in the hospital with much worse situations than I had to bear.
While I was in the hospital, I met a lady named Irma. Her family came to see her and during that time, her son David took an interest in me. He was at least four years older, but it certainly added a dimension to my stay that I liked. He came to Lushton to visit me and I remember staying with his folks once when I needed to be back for checkups. He was thinking of marriage and I was too young to be thinking about that at this time, and since he became quite pushy, I squashed the relationship.
Revival meetings played a central part in my life in my growing up years. At age eleven, The Musical Morgans came to our small community to preach to us the wonderful news of salvation. Our entire family went forward during the course of those meetings, myself to accept Christ as my personal Saviour.
 |
Former Friend Bible Church; now New Life Community Church. The building had served as the chapel on the Fairmont Air Force base. |
This church, even though 60 miles from our farm, became our regular church body. Their friendliness, love for the Lord and encouragement brought us coming back time and again. Eventually our parents moved to Friend after all of us kids were gone.
The Musical Morgans were having revival meetings in Henderson and by now I was a senior in high school. Our friend Wanda Janzen Goertzen took us with her to one of the meetings. My sister, Alma, saw a guy in the choir that Wanda knew and she liked. She talked Wanda into trying to hook her up with a date with him. Roger Regier was looking for his brothers and came by in his car. Wanda also knew him and stopped him to talk to him about the date. He promised he would see what he could do if I would go out with him. Roger was not able to get “Clyde” as he already was going steady, but he got Wayne Martens to come along and Alma and I had our first blind dates—and our parents said we could go! Guess the fact that they were Mennonite Brethren did give them some confidence in them. This was the beginning of something much more permanent for both of us!
I graduated that spring. The next fall, I left to go to college at Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I begged to be able to go to Tabor College where Roger would be attending but my parents did not agree. Roger and I were in love so we waited it out this year and planned a wedding for the following September. Alma married Wayne after her graduation from high school in June, 3 months before we got married.
I cared for two Jewish preschool children in their home for my room and board and a little spending money at college. They were good children and it was a good experience. My parents paid the tuition. I remember bus rides to school in below freezing weather, but mostly I remember the friendships I made, several of which I kept in touch with over the years.
Planning a wedding absorbed most of my time while working a summer time job of auditing books for a furniture store in Minneapolis. I shopped for my trousseau and relished in spending money that I earned myself! My parents could not afford two wedding gowns in one year, so I needed to redo Alma’s dress to fit me. I made a sweetheart collar instead of the stand up collar she had to be different, plus I used a different veil.
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