Selma "Sally" Boer Bayer
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Selma "Sally" Boer Bayer

In Loving Memory

Selma "Sally" Boer Bayer

March 1, 1914  •  June 13, 2007

Mom was born March 1, 1914 in Red Rock, Texas to Joseph and Selma Hilbig Boer. She was christened Selma Anna Marie Boer. She was the seventh of eight children—5 girls, 3 boys. In the family she grew up speaking Plattdeutsch and English, her father having come over from Germany at 15, and her maternal grand parents at an earlier time. When mother and her siblings couldn�t come up with a word for something in English or German—they�d make one up—thus the scum on hot chocolate became umptee, and the clapper in a bell , a bimmel bommel.

Mother�s idyllic childhood was interrupted when at four going on five her when mother died from the flu. Even though other members from the German community offered to take Mom and her younger brother, Grandpop refused because he�d been separated from his family shortly after birth when they sailed for America. After her death, mother�s Dad continued working at the General store in Red Rock, while the eight children took care of themselves. Thus Mom had a very exciting childhood. It included many things that the other children in the community weren�t allowed to do—such as riding hogs and sliding off the barn roof.

Mother was a tomboy. Her best childhood stories included activities with the boys. Mom definitely kept up, from smoking grapevine, to climbing any tree that she was dared to climb. Going off to St Mary�s Academy in Austin began the taming of her free spirit. One of the nuns insisted that she begin to wear a bra. Often she cried because she was so homesick for the country, but she hung in there and became the first non-religious from the Rockne community to graduate from high school.

Fortunately, Mom met and dated a fellow named Stanley for a good number of years only to break up with him when he moved to Houston. Thus Mom was saved for Dad—for shortly thereafter, Mom met Arthur Bayer. Mom was the nice German Catholic girl that Dad had been waiting for. Four months later, they were married.

Mom and Dad were blessed with ten children, seven daughters, a son and then twin girls. She lost her red headed twin, Lora, when the child was 13 months old. Mom grieved for years. As children we didn�t understand the grieving. Years later Mom told me that Fr. Becker said that many large families lose a child. I thought, "Now when in the world did Mom find time to talk to Fr. Becker?" Then I remembered being loaded up every two weeks to go confession. All of us kids would go first—say our "Hail Marys" and then go out to the playground to swing. Only when grown did I realize that Mom was using the sacrament to help her keep going while working through her grief. And with the help of God�s grace, she managed; for the lunches were always made, the laundry always done and there were always meals on the table. I never even remember the house not being cleaned and straightened.

Mom also began going to daily Mass after Lora�s death, a practice she continued until she could no longer get to church by car or by walking. Once again, she sought solace in the church. She began to take Dad with her to Mass everyday as she aged. She so lovingly took care of him until his death. On the morning he died she was feeding him breakfast, and she turned to me and said, "Katherine, I live for your father."

Mom was blessed to continue living at home until her death on June 13, 2007.

Well Mom�s home now. She is reunited with Dad, Lora and her parents and all her siblings. What rejoicing there must be in heaven today. Now Mom is fully restored and fully conscious of all of us and all our needs in a new way. She is not a captive in time and space any more. So now our conversations with Mom will be prayers, and she will always intercede for us and our children.

Respectfully submitted
Katherine Bayer Hess
June 13, 2007