Written by Annie Cole
You can imagine what Lammert's early life must have been like, one boy with seven sisters! Of course the last sister didn't appear until he had been married a month or so, but I think there was a special affinity between those two. My earliest memories of him were when I was about 5 and he was about 15. We lived in a house not far from a woods of locust trees. He and Clifford, who became Henrietta's husband, used to go there and I was priviledged to go along. Could it have been a weiner roast? Those two were good friends very early and went through a lot together, especially during the depression days when both were out of a job and worked at public works projects together and in their spare time turned out toy jumping jacks, pin cushions, etc. to earn a little extra money.
Lammert and Carrie were married when he was 20. They had the children quite soon and, of course, times were hard and money was scarce. For a time they shared a big house in Muskegon with us. Those were the days, we were writing little books of poems. Lammert was very quick and whitty. I can still see him sitting at the table, looking for a few moments at one of the little black and white pictures we had for inspiration, and dashing off a little ditty to fit the occasion. He loved puns, "It's been raining cats and dogs. I just stepped in a poodle." or "The people who see flying saucers must be in their cups." He was a quiet person and the most modest of men, but he was really musically gifted. Music was the big interest in his life.
Tragedy struck when Carrie died in an explosioin one October day. She had been frying doughnuts on a kerosene stove. Somehow the grease spilled on the burner and the resulting fires caused an explosion which caused her to be horribly burned. Three year old Alice and 1 1/2 year old Roger were in the house at the time but miraculously escaped injury because the force of the explosion went upward over their heads. Carrie died that night - mercifully, because she would only have suffered in agony had she lived.
The next year or two were troubled times. The family finally settled into another house, with Ruthie to take care of them, which was a most difficult job, with 6 children from 15 to 1 1/2 to care for. In time, Lammert and Dena were married, and gradually things became peaceful again, but those were hard times for all concerned.
Lammert worked for many years at Standard Automotive Parts Company in Muskegon. He was a grinder, and all those years he was breathing in the oily dust from his machine. Eventually his lungs couldn't take it anymore. He had pheumonia a couple of times and then had to take early retirement to avoid any more damage to his lungs. He and Dena started going to Florida for the winter, where the warm air helped his breathing.
They sold their house in Muskegon and lived the summer time in their trailer on their daughter's (Carol Postema) property near Fremont. During this time Lammert was continually plagued by back aches which the doctors could not seem to cure. They were staying in florida one summer to see if they could stand the heat there and avoid all the traveling back and forth. Lammert's legs became suddenly paralyzed and they found when they rushed him to the hospital that his spinal cord had been severed by bone cancer which had been eating away at his spine. He lived about three months longer, as patient and uncomplaining as ever, and finally died, much loved and missed by all.