Great-grandmother's kitchen table

  Maria's project during my two-week motorcycle trip last month was the stripping and refinishing of the kitchen table we inherited from my mother.

The table's original owner was my great-grandmother Elizabeth Ray Dietz who was a farm wife in Carroll County, Indiana.

Elizabeth and her husband John lived near the small farm community of Deer Creek. She was born in 1844 and married John G. Dietz on Feb. 11, 1871. I know the date, because I have the original marriage license. John Dietz died in 1918 at the age of 79. That was during the great influenza pandemic, but I have yet to determine his cause of death. Elizabeth died in 1923 also at the age of 79. Both are buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Carroll County.

The table has a center leaf, which Maria also stripped and refinished, but we're using it without the leaf for the time being because it fits our breakfast nook better this way.

Maria confined her efforts to the table top, leaving the undercarriage in its original condition. In the process of stripping, refinishing and applying polyurethane, Maria discovered indentations in the table top indicating it had been used for cutting out sewing patterns.

I think she did a spectacular job on the table top.

My mother once told me she had fond memories of sitting at her grandmother's kitchen table as a child. She would have been 8 years old when her grandmother died. Mom, by the way, lived to be 86.

That's Ruthie, the Wonder Dog, under the table.