As she stands doing dishes at her kitchen sink, very proud grandparent Rose Wiehn can now gaze out her window admiring the beautiful artwork which adorns their 60-foot farrowing shed.
The once all white shed was recently transformed by fifteen of her grandchildren during their annual family event they affectionately refer to as “Grandparents Week”.
For the past twenty years, Dennis and Rose Wiehn have welcomed their grandchildren to spend the third week in July at their family farm, taking part in activities such as waterfights, fort building, making zucchini chips, putting up corn, and now painting murals. I had the privilege of sitting down with the family to learn more about the unique and very special event.
Although I have lived in Elgin most of my life, I am sadly unfamiliar where most people live once I leave the city limits.
As part of my directions to find the Wiehn residence, I was told to turn down a long lane entrance.
To be honest, even as I traveled down the long lane, I wasn’t completely sure I had found the correct place until I saw the large shed featuring a beautifully painted American Flag, as well as paintings of windmills, barn quilts, crosses, birds and rainbows, just to name a few.
After being led inside by the Wiehn’s very polite 17 year old grandson Kyle, I took a seat at the kitchen table and was immediately surrounded by children from the ages of three to 26, ready to share their experiences of the annual get together, as well as their excitement about the their newest venture of painting the shed.
Initially Rose shared that, during a conversation with her husband Dennis, he had suggested that they have a 60-foot billboard in their yard, and it would be nice if someone could paint a mural on it.
Rose responded that they have artistic grandchildren and thus, an activity for this year’s Grandparents Week was planned. Rose added, “Grandpa Dennis told the grandchildren he wanted their art to represent something religious and something patriotic.”
One at a time, after introducing themselves, each grandchild shared the background behind each of their paintings.
Corbin, the twelve year old son of Jennie and Nathan Gollehon from Elkhorn, along with his cousins Justin Wiehn, 12 year old son of Jason and Patty Wiehn of Shelton and Kolton Wiehn, 16 year old son of Keith and Keli Wiehn of Battle Creek, designed and painted the large American Flag, which covers a 12-foot section in the center of the shed.
Rather than taking a four-foot section of the barn to each design something individually, the three boys decided to work together, painting an American Flag. To assure that the flag would proportionately accurate, they took the time to use a flag calculator, found on the internet, giving the appropriate dimensions for each star and stripe. I must say the results were nothing short of impressive.
The youngest to have his work featured on the shed was three-year-old Joshua, son of Jason and Patty Wiehn.
Joshua, being a little too young to understand his grandfather’s recommendations of faith and patriotic inspired work, showed off his talents by painting a sea monster.
One of the most personalized designs came from the polite, young man who first welcomed me as I arrived. Kyle, son of Jason and Patty Wiehn, shared his inspiration for his work as such, “ I decided for the background I would have everyone from the family dip one hand in red and one hand in blue paint and create a mash of handprints, because everyone has a unique hand in our family. In the center I will put a cross with my baby sized hand in the very middle, to remember we are family and where this all started.”
Speaking of where this all started, Rose explained, “We began Grandparent’s Week twenty years ago after our own children, Gloria, Keith, Denise, Jason, Karen and Jennie had begun to have children of their own. It was a way to get all the cousins together…to keep our families close….to create a bond. We put it on the calendar every year. We chose the third week in July to not interfere with summer activities like softball, etc.” Today, that family bond is stronger than ever as the Wiehn’s many grandchildren travel from the communities of Elkhorn, Battle Creek, Shelton, Norfolk, Central City and Lynch for the opportunity to spend this annual week together.
I smiled as drove away, traveling down that long lane that directed me to this beautiful farm and family.
I took one last glance back into my rearview mirror only to see a flurry of kids running out of the house to go back to the shed, excited and ready to finish the project they had started for their grandparents. I thought about all the stories the family shared about their annual week together and I realized I had been in the presence of something very special.
I believe Rose’s daughter, Jenni may have described it best, “ I don’t know too many grandparents that would do this year after year. The memories that they make are phenomenal. The kids simply love this time together and don’t want to miss a thing.”
