The best part of my job is interviewing strangers.
I appreciate how they welcome me into their homes with no hesitation. They let me ask all kinds of nosey questions, trusting that I’ll use discretion as to what makes it into the paper.
In every instance, I come away in awe. I also know I’ve barely scratched the surface of their lives. We are complicated beings. And a question-and-answer format can’t begin to tell the whole story.
In today’s Register is what was supposed to be a cooking feature on Jane Ward of Colony. I never got around to asking for recipes. First, she doesn’t stick to conventional recipes, changing things up as the mood strikes, a sure sign of a confident cook. Second, her personal story was way more interesting.
As she talked, we went from room to room of her comfy home and then on outside.
Her kitchen is the hub of activity during the summer months where she preserves the bounty of her garden. She’s also an expert baker. As we talked she rolled out sugar cookies and decorated a cake.
At the other end of her home is a sunroom that sits dormant during the summer — too hot — but during the winter basks in the morning sun providing a perfect venue for her needlework. Jane sews, quilts and tats. In her two bedrooms are beautiful quilts, self-made. On the dining room table is pretty lacework, again, her handiwork.
Her home is comfortably arranged. She mentions how she was about to throw away a recliner, but when it made it as far as the patio, well, now it’s her favorite chair. I liked her practical nature.
For 22 years Jane worked at Parmely Poultry outside of Le Roy. She candled eggs to determine which were edible. She snipped the beaks off chicks. She cleaned the pens. She boxed the eggs.
For a city girl, I was in awe of such work. For Jane, who was raised on a farm, the job was routine and a seamless transition from farm to factory.
Jane’s sewing skills honed through 4-H also translated well to her job at Country Critters, a now defunct puppet factory in Burlington.
She never gave much thought to living anywhere else. She found love, twice, and work to her satisfaction right here in southeast Kansas.
She finds reward in helping her neighbors.
She’s content to make her corner of the world a little bit better.
In that short hour I learned the secret to happiness from Jane. She lives outside of herself by helping others, she has hobbies that keep her body and mind active, and she’s satisfied by living within her modest means.
It is that easy.
—Susan Lynn
No secret to happiness: Learn, help others, stay active
