Patricia A. Schaller

Marguerite (Bauerle) Rice. Weighing only five pounds and being severely jaundiced, my father wondered whether the nurses had given him a Chinese baby to hold by mistake! I continued to lose weight so that at my first doctor appointment I only weighed 4 ½ pounds. Soon, however, the doctors figured out how to help me and I began to thrive. I was too young to realize then that this was the first time I was to experience the Lord’s saving grace.

The second time the Lord saved me I was 2 ½ years old and living with my parents in an old Victorian country house in Jersey, Ohio. My dad was at work in Newark at Pure Oil and my mother panicked when I fell down the steep basement stairs and hit my head on the canning stove, knocking me unconscious. She decided to carry me outside in the pouring rain and lay me on the ground in the hope that I would be revived. I finally was, but I began having epileptic seizures for several years afterward, and I still have a dent in my forehead from where it hit the stove.

When I was four, my brother James Warren joined the family.We would call him “The Little Preacher” or “Old Sobersides” because he was so quiet and serious and was always thinking.He was joined by brother Richard Atwood four years later. I always remember him as the “Baby In A Box” because our family took off in our 1936 Chevy to visit relatives in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey shortly after he was born. He rode in a wooden box which fit snugly between the front and back seats. The box was made by my Uncle Azel, who was a talented furniture maker. There were no carseats for infants or children in those days!

While my brothers enjoyed golfing and later working at the golf course, I loved horses! I spent many summer hours at the farm of my Uncle Michael and Aunt Mary Bauerle. My grandfather Bauerle built the farmhouse by hand. He grew the grain and separated it from the straw, which he mixed with the clay he dug to make the bricks he used to build it. I loved taking care of the farm animals and especially loved riding on the broad back of Dick, the senior plowhorse. He let me “steer” him by holding onto the balls of the haims of his big plow collar. I would proudly announce to everyone at the dinner table afterward that I helped Uncle Michael do the chores all day, even though it was always fun and never “work”. My love affair with horses continued. When I was older, I was the only girl at the Junior Riding Club who didn’t actually own a horse. I was fortunate to be able to ride the horses of friends and also at the Vince Hitts stable, where I was saved by the Lord a third time. I was riding a Tennessee Walking Horse mare on a small English saddle down the lightly-traveled road next to the pasture when the horse suddenly spooked and I flew off of her back. I woke up moments later and was lying on the ground with the bridle reins still in my hand and the horse’s nose nudging me as if to say, “Wake up! What happened?” Luckily, I was unhurt. A few years later, though, Vince’s daughter was killed by a truck while riding her horse down that same road!

Years later, my dream of owning a horse finally came true when I was able to purchase horses for my daughters and then one for myself at the Travis Saddle Club on Travis Air Force Base. I felt the same excitement and sense of freedom as I did as a young girl when I was riding my Mustang mare Rainy. Later, though, it was while riding a friend’s horse in Redding that the horse went down and rolled on me, shattering the bones in my left arm, triggering a painful condition known as Reflex Sympathetic Distrophy Syndrome (RSDS) when a steel plate was placed in the arm with screws to mend the bones. Needless to say, the Lord once again helped me to survive the ordeal and extensive therapy for my arm and hand, and I was able to heal both physically and emotionally.

I graduated from Newark Memorial High School in 1948, attended Ohio State University’s Twilight School, and worked two years as a record librarian/copywriter and on-air personality at Newark’s WCLT-FM radio station. I had my own show, “Homemaker Harmonies”, which was sponsored by Borden’s Elsie the Cow. I also worked at the Newark Advocate newspaper and at the Lazarus department store after graduation. When a friend of mine was accepted by TWA Airlines at their downtown Columbus, Ohio location, she urged me to apply as well. I, too, was accepted and we were sent to Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Chicago for reservations training. I worked in Reservations, Ambassador Flight while my friend Joan went on to eventually become the Assistant Airport Manager in Pittsburg. It was during my time with TWA that I ran into a young man I knew in high school and with whom I went to Senior Prom. He was waiting on the steps of the post office and was going to take a bus to report for duty in the United States Air Force. He asked if I would write back if he could write to me and I said “Yes!” I also said “Yes!” about a year later when he proposed to me and I became the wife of Jack Albert Schaller.

For the next twenty-three years, Jack and I lived the military life. We lived in Columbus, Ohio where our first daughter Rebecca Sue (Bekki) was born on October 29, 1953, and then were transferred to Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. I worked at the Holyoke Transcript Telegram and volunteered with the Air Force Dependent Assistance program. Second daughter Laurel Ann (Laurie) was born on November 1, 1955. We then moved to Plattsburg Air Force Base in northern New York where I worked at the Plattsburg Press Republican newspaper in Editorials as a feature writer, family page and special sections editor. Next, we moved to Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield, California in April of 1963. Jack was assigned to the Strategic Air Command’s 916th Air Refueling Squadron and flew many missions in a KC-135 refueling fighter jets in Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam War. I continued my newspaper experience at the Fairfield Daily Republic for two years in Editorials and four years in Display Advertising. I also wrote freelance articles and stories for twenty-three magazine publications, volunteered again at the military’s Family Services program, volunteered as an Assistant Girl Scout Leader, and earned more college credits at Solano Community College.

God saved me twice during my time in Fairfield. Jack, myself, and our daughters were driving to Northern California to see Jack’s favorite fishing spot. We started to climb a hill to the lake; however, it had rained recently beforehand, and the car’s wheels got stuck in the mud. Jack tried for a long time to free the car but the tires only went in deeper and deeper. As it was starting to get dark, I took the girls and we walked to the main road, singing and praying all the way. When we reached the road a Cal Fire truck came by and we flagged it down. We were taken back to the still-stuck car and they were able to pull us out of the mud. We learned that the truck and crew were not normally in that location so we felt that our prayers had definitely been answered that day!

The second saving was during a rafting trip with my husband and other couples. I was already nervous about my swimming ability in swift water but everyone assured me that we would be fine and it would be a fun day. My fears were realized when we were paddling and the water quickly turned fast and scary. Somehow the raft turned over and I found myself thinking I was going to die and praying for the Lord’s help. He answered me as my husband helped me get to safety and the only victim of the water was my glasses!

Jack retired from the Air Force in June of 1969, at which time we purchased a home in Fairfield and the local Straw Hat Pizza franchise. He turned more and more to alcohol and socializing with friends and less and less to his family and home in the next few years. We separated but were still married when he died on October 21,1976.

I moved to Redding, California when I heard of a job opening in Display Advertising at the Record Searchlight from a previous co-worker at the Daily Republic who was now working there. A fresh start sounded so good but also scary to me. With only a few dollars in my pocket, Laurie and I began our new adventure and eventually purchased a home after I sold the house in Fairfield. I worked at the Record Searchlight for twenty-four years, retiring at the age of 68. I then could devote time to my new love of oil painting, gardening, Scrabble, and a little traveling before my COPD and failing eyesight prohibited me from continuing to do them. The past two years I have survived breast cancer and was vaccinated for Covid. I have had many blessings in my life of 91 years including two loving daughters, three granddaughters,

two great-granddaughters, two great-grandsons, one great-great-grandson, numerous close friends over the years, and my fellowship with Valley Christian Church.

“Life is a gift to you. The way you live your life is a gift to those who come after you.”