Birth date: Jun 25, 1921 Death date: Mar 16, 2021
Ruth Trabert Dilts (1921-2021) was born 25 June 1921 in Cheraw, Colorado, the fourth child of five sisters and four brothers. She grew up the daughter of a Mennonite minister-farmer. Ruth told stories about crossing the winter ice Read Obituary
The one memory of Ruth that sticks in my mind forever seems like a very insignificant incident but for me as a child it was incredibly important. Whenever I think about my mother (Ruth) this memory always comes up.
I was as most boys somewhat mischievous in nature. I managed to get a fire extinguisher that I learned how to fill up with water and I enjoyed spraying the water around our yard and neighborhood. At the time we had very strained relations with our next door neighbors for several unrelated reasons. Anyway, the next door kids accused me of spraying them with the fire extinguisher which I did not do. What I did was for one second I just pointed the hose at them to see their reaction and they immediately ran into their house and told their father that i sprayed them with a fire extinguisher.
Their father marched over to our house with the kids and came in and sat down and talked to Mom (Ruth) and I and stated that I had just sprayed their kids with water. Ruth looked at me and said "Tom, is this true?" and I said "No" and explained unusually truthfully what happened. Ruth then said to them "My son didn't do what you accuse him of." I then with the arguments of a well seasoned lawyer asked them "if I just sprayed you then why aren't you wet?"
There are a lot more details to this rather silly incident I will spare you but what was so vitally important for me was that my mother was willing to stake her reputation on what I, a small boy, said. I think this points to one of my mothers strongest character traits. She was faithful to her loved ones and would defend us to the ends of the earth.
I get tears in my eyes even today when i think about this incident.
/Thomas Dilts
