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Rauch : Cecilia Ida November 27, 1914 - December 15, 2004 Cecelia Ida Rauch died Wednesday, December 15, 2004, after a long and full life of ninety years. She is fondly remembered as a good Mother, and a loving Grandmother, who always tried to be straight forward and fair. Her husband Alois, her brothers, sisters, and parents predeceased her. The life she led took her from the horse and buggy days to the computer age with all the adjustments necessary to cope with such change. Cecelia was born November 27, 1914 into a large family as the youngest of seven children. Her parents, John and Mary Honnef had arrived in the United States from Germany as children with each of their individual immigrant families. When Cecelia was born, they were living in Florence, South Dakota. She and her family moved north to the 'Promised Land' or at least that was how her father described it. They gathered up their belongings and moved north to a small place called Barford, where she attended school. She suffered a serious injury to her foot as a child that left her with a significant limp. Even so, she later attended as many country-dances in rural Saskatchewan as possible. She loved to dance to the old time fiddle music. Although Cecelia learned to speak German before she ever knew English, she did not learn to read and write it well, which was something she always regretted. She did enjoy trying to converse with German speaking people. Although she had aspirations to become a nurse, her schooling years were cut short due to the difficult economic situation of the times. She stayed on the family homestead through the 1930's, digging Seneca root to sell to medicine companies. She learned how to work hard on the farm as well to help support the family. Cecelia and her sister Christine spent many hard hours picking berries to sell as well as to can for the family?s use. She churned the cream into butter and traded it for items at the general store. Cecelia met and married Alois Rauch from the Handhills, south of Delia, in 1948. Alois and she worked hard on their farm to raise their two sons, John and Herman. Throughout all her years of living on the farm, there was rarely a time that would find her idle. She grew big gardens to feed her family. She put up many jars of pickles, jams, juice, and fruit. She baked her own bread and raised chickens every year for eggs and meat. She helped her husband in the barn milking cows, in order to ship cream to market every week. She also helped out in the field with the harvest. She knew how to hunt and skin animals, and taught her boys what she knew about life, animals, and the land. She sewed her own clothes and loved to knit and crochet as well. She scarcely knew what it was to be bored, what with her busy life both indoors and out. Her life was centered around her family and the farm. When Herman married Lorna, she enjoyed her new role as Grandma to their three children, Chris, Jenny and Amanda. She lived to enjoy seeing her four great grandchildren, Andrew, Brianna. Jaime, and Tristan. When John married Colleen, she was able to enjoy two more grandchildren, Daniel and David, in her last few years of life. After the death of her husband in 1996, she stayed on the farm in her own home until 1999. The last five years of her life were spent in the Drumheller Continuing Care Center, where she continued to display a zest for life and appreciation for all those who cared for her and for her family and friends who came to visit. It is with sadness and gratitude to a mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother and friend, that we say our farewells this December 18, 2004 in Delia. We thank all those who were able to attend her graveside service at 1:00 P.M. at the Delia Cemetery, followed by a Memorial Service in the Delia Community Center at 2:00 P.M. PERSONAL ALTERNATIVE FUNERAL SERVICES, Calgary 1-888-216-5111