Eva Kay Fischer

Eva Kay Fischer taught us how to create a life of purpose and satisfaction in the midst of adversity. For eighty-eight years, right up to the hours before her death on April 14, 2000, she displayed remarkable courage in her struggle to rise above poverty and illness. Her large and grateful family finds the words of Proverbs 31:10 a fitting tribute to her: “Who shall find a strong woman? Her legacy is more precious than jewels.”

A descendant of German immigrants from Odessa, Russia, Eva was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota on May 8, 1911. Her parents, Anton and Mary Volk, raised their nine children on a family farm. Here Eva first developed her love of nature, and the fondness for horses and flowers that she carried with her throughout life. Although she was intelligent and imaginative, Eva’s formal education in a small schoolhouse reached only to the end of grade school. Displaying unusual independence and resourcefulness for the time, she left the farm in her late teens, and took a job in a florist and candy shop in Mobridge, South Dakota.

On February 20, 1932, just as the Great Depression was deepening, Eva married Andy Fischer. He had a five-piece band when they met, but spent most of his working years in the dairy industry. The first three of their eight children were born in South Dakota. Eva and Andy then moved to Salem, Oregon, where they raised their five daughters and three sons.

Being a mother gave Eva her greatest joy, and at the same time set limits to her opportunities. Her ingenuity, resilience, and ability to create beauty found expression not in the public arena, but in the home. She developed nourishing and tasty meals when there was very little money for food, often canning fruit and produce far into the night, and once selling a lone pig from the family acreage for five dollars to buy flour for bread. She could size up a window curtain or prom dress and recreate it at her sewing machine, and she loved to make beautiful things for others. Her children remember the dishes that introduced them to their German heritage—Kase Knepfels and Sour Cream Kuchen—and the apple pies, homemade chili and bread that awaited them when they returned from school.

Eva’s courage was evident especially in the way she faced her many illnesses. In her forties she survived very serious colon cancer. Doctors describe her recovery as “a medical miracle.” Of it, she herself said, “With so many kids at home, I thought I just could not die.” Later in life, after a stroke, she had to learn to walk again. She took on this task too with the determination and faith that God and her children would help her.

Part of Eva’s legacy is the importance she placed on the attitude we take toward the events we encounter in life. There is much we cannot change, she believed—our past, how people treat us, life’s circumstances—but we are in charge of our attitudes, and we can choose these anew every day. Her belief about this is captured in the folk saying: “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails.” 

Eva’s approach to people, especially family, was marked by generosity and large-heartedness. One of her sons remarked that she loved to receive gifts so that she would have something to give to others. She yearned for her children to have the opportunities in life she did not have, and she left them free to be their unique selves. She wanted them to become all they could be, and rejoiced in their achievements. In her later years she supported, with her voice and her vote, whatever allowed all women to reach their full potential.

Like so many other women bound by circumstance, Eva could only express her gifts in small, quiet ways hidden from public view, and so her contributions were not fully honored in her lifetime. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren now take this opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for her legacy.