Gilroy – Nestled in a quaint neighborhood near a bustling junior
high school, Jean Wenneberg and daughter Charlotte Berg, soak up
the sun in their backyard and discuss their garden.
Gilroy – Nestled in a quaint neighborhood near a bustling junior high school, Jean Wenneberg and daughter Charlotte Berg, soak up the sun in their backyard and discuss their garden. Each day Wenneberg takes the time to celebrate the beauty in life, but her favorite time of year is when her daughter’s gardening efforts pay off and the flowers burst out in full bloom.
Even though the garden isn’t as brilliant as it was in the Spring, Jeannie, as her friends like to call her, has plenty of other things to celebrate. Today she turns 80 years old.
The Kentucky native moved to Gilroy in 1945 when the entire town stretched from Miller Avenue to just past Monterey Street. She remembers going downtown to do everything from pick up some milk, to buy a new dress, to enjoy dinner out with her husband.
“You can’t even compare it,” she said of how Gilroy has changed over the years.
Back then she was busy working for the city and raising her only daughter. In her free time she loved to travel with her husband Arnold, who died three years ago after 52 years of marriage.
“He was with the first wave of American soldiers to land on Normandy Beach in World War II,” she said proudly, pointing to his three purple hearts and bronze star framed on the wall. “We returned for the 40th anniversary to attend the dedication of a monument to his division. Thirty-two heads of state were there.”
She loves to talk about her husband, though it still brings a tear to her eye.
“It’s half of you, you know. It’s really hard,” she said.
She loves to reminisce, but is determined to live each day.
“I make a project for myself each day. Otherwise, why get up?” she said.
It may only be September, but Wenneberg is already discussing the annual project she hopes to never abandon.
“Every year, for about 25 years, I’ve been decorating for the holidays,” she said. She starts the day after Thanksgiving by taking everything off the walls and digging out the boxes of decorations. She spends the next few weeks sprinkling every inch of the house, inside and out, with holiday cheer.
When asked if she makes any of the decorations herself she laughs, “Oh no, I have to pay through the nose for them.”
Although the decorating is a huge job, she can’t stop.
“I enjoy it, I’ve done it for so many years my neighbors expect it. People come by every year to see them,” she said beaming.
Until then she plans on keeping herself buried in books, trying to get through all the reading she wasn’t able to do in her younger days.
“People complain about not knowing what to do with their free time. Now that I’m retired I don’t know how I ever had time to work,” she said.
