Dick Buckwheat remembers his mother Dorothy Koed Buckwheat
Even though Dick Buckwheat lost is mom over 15 years ago, I know how hard it was for him to write this. I appreciate his participation in the project more than he knows. The day I went to his house to take his photo, Dick’s daughter and granddaughter were there for a birthday celebration. Dick was preparing a meal of “kroppkaka”, a traditional Swedish dish, namely potato dumplings with a filling of pork or bacon. Dick’s mother often made kroppkaka for family members, which was always requested on special occasions. The coincidence of Dick preparing kroppkaka while I was there to take his photo made me feel like his mom was there with us that day.
Dorothy Koed Buckwheat was born Oct. 15, 1911 and developed her loss of memory in about 1982. It got progressively worse throughout the years. One of the biggest irritations of the disease was calling home to talk to my dad. Mom would answer the phone, she’d say that she would go get him, and set the receiver down–never telling my dad! Eventually mom went into a nursing home around 1994 in northern Wisconsin. Sadly it got to the point where she didn’t recognize any of her own children or grandchildren. If you talked to her by calling her “Mom,“ she wouldn’t respond. Only by calling her “Dorothy” as the nursing home staff would do would you get a response. Mom died in January 1997 finally free of this terrible disease.”
– Dick Buckwheat