Mother provides sweet memories despite pain
Mother provides sweet memories despite pain
By: Carol Holmes
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments She is a petite brunette who loves NASCAR, Swedish cooking and home decorating, but most of all Anna Ostby loves being a mom and grandmother.
Ostby was chosen as the 2006 Tehachapi Mother of the Year for her dedication to and love for family.
“It’s humbling,” Ostby said when asked how she felt about the honor. “I don’t think I’m that special.”
However, her daughter Lindsey Wells, 21, who nominated her, said that her mom is definitely a special, loving person.
“My mother has done an outstanding job being a single mother of two children who suffer from the same bone disorder as she does, osteogenesis imperfecta,” Wells wrote in her nomination letter. “Through the many fractures both my brother and I have suffered through childhood, she has remained strong and independent and sacrificed things she wanted and needed to take care of us.”
Wells recalls the horrible earaches she suffered with as a young child and how her mom would stay up all night trying to make her comfortable.
“But I felt so sorry for you,” Ostby said as Wells recalled those long nights.
Wells also recalls that her mom made every holiday exciting for her and her brother, Andrew.
Wells said that sometimes at Christmas they wouldn’t even have gifts to open, but her mother created a wonderful atmosphere by baking Swedish pastries and driving her children around town to look at the Christmas lights.
Wells said that in recent years, Ostby’s bone disease has become more acute, causing her to have to use a cane in order to walk.
“Despite all this, she remains in high spirits and manages to keep an immaculate home,” Wells said.
Ostby also keeps herself well-groomed and tells her children that even though they are in pain, they can make themselves presentable.
Wells also praises her mother’s talent in decorating the home. Although Ostby loves home decorating and exhibits a talent for taking a garage sale item and making it into a lovely addition to her home, she has to be patient and lean on others to accomplish most home improvement tasks.
“I love decorating the home, but I have to be on my best behavior and let someone move the furniture,” she said.
Helping her move furniture is her husband, Keith Ostby. The couple were married in July 2003 and Ostby said “it’s the best decision I ever made.”
In addition to home decorating, Ostby enjoys making the Swedish dishes that her mother and grandmother made.
Wells said her mom is the best cook and that she and Andrew always wished, when they were eating school cafeteria food, that it would be as good as their what their mother prepared.
Ostby has suffered with her painful disease since she was a young child. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother had the disease as well. She said having the painful ailment helps her be compassionate with others who suffer.
Despite her challenges, Ostby’s sense of adventure caused her to leave Sweden at age 19 to work in New York as a nanny. At age 21, she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean and took a nanny position in Los Angeles, where she met her first husband and got married.
In 1994 she divorced and moved to Ridgecrest. She attended Cerro Coso College, taking prerequisites to become a nurse, but her health problems prevented her from completing the course.
Ostby has lived in Tehachapi for 10 years and is honored and a little “embarrassed” to be honored as the Mother of the Year, because she said there are so many honorable mothers.
Now a grandmother, Ostby takes care of Wells’ daughter Arika so that Wells can complete her college education.
Congratulations to all nominees
The Tehachapi News congratulates all the mothers who were nominated: Christina Lang, Tammy Heckathorn, Connie Ward, Pauline McClung Bird, Michele Wassell, Lillian Turner, Anna Ostby, Leslie Schoenberg, Tami Smith, Denise, Suzanne Grissom, Maryann Paciullo, Raquel Lantz, Renee Huckaby and Michelle Shugart.
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