MY GRANDMOTHER, THE LANDLADY
This week's topic in the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge is "Fortune". My post will be a different take on the word "fortune".
My maternal Kijak grandparents had many homes in their life. Most of the homes were rentals; they purchased a home and farm property in the early 1920's, and my mother was born in this home, but during the depression they lost the home and property. It wasn't until later that they were able to purchase their own home in St. Joseph, Michigan.
The home was large - it had 2 bedrooms and a bath, living room, dining room, kitchen on the main floor but another 4 bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. At first my mother's 3 brothers each had a bedroom on the second floor and my grandfather's father, who lived with them, had the 4th bedroom. But as their sons grew and left home and my grandfather and his father passed away, my grandmother decided to rent out the upstairs rooms to make a little extra money. "Little" is the operative word here! I will say that there was a separate entrance to these rooms so that nobody passed through the house itself on their way to their rooms.
These rooms were offered strictly as sleeping room with no meals offered. The rooms each had a bed, dresser, closet and the shared bathroom down the hall. Because of the shared bathroom she only rented to men. My grandmother made the beds each day, changed the linens and towels and cleaned the rooms. For that work she charged the mammoth price of $1 per day or $7 per week. I will say that she always had all 4 rooms rented. Many of her renters remained for the 10 years that she did this until she sold the home and moved into a senior citizens complex. When her family would come to visit, such as on Easter, she would inform her renters that her family was coming for x amount of days and they would find other accommodations for those days and then would return after we would all leave.
Yes, the cost of living was much lower in the 1960's but $7 a week per room did not add much to my grandmother's income. She was a hard worker and a pleasant landlady and she never had any issues with her renters.
UNTIL...one tenant came and stayed quite a while with no issues. He was agreeable and followed the rules. However, when he chose to leave he left behind something that caused a big concern for my grandmother.
In cleaning his room after he vacated my grandmother noticed a box left behind on the shelf in the closet. In looking through the box she was perplexed - what were all these apparatuses? She asked the husband of one of her nieces and he told her that it looked like coin counterfeiting equipment and he advised she call the police.
The police were called and indeed it was equipment used in counterfeiting coin. My grandmother answered questions and this progressed to a federal case. She eventually had to go to Kalamazoo, Michigan to the Federal Court Building to testify in this matter.
Whatever happened to the perpetrator I don't know. But I do know that it frightened my grandmother to think that such activity was going on in her own home without her knowledge.
Fortune - My grandmother certainly never made a fortune in her lifetime despite hard work and dedication. But she did have the experience of seeing somebody else's interpretation of fortune albeit in a felonious manner.
