Naug, Estelle [01 02 1996 sent by Dan Mittelstadt
Subject: Message from Ecuador and Atlanta. Hey folks, I’m having a great time. I was sorry to hear about Natalie. See ya soon. Love Jenifer PS Have pizza or cheese burgers ready!. Following is what Roger did for Mrs. Naug.]
A Brief Biographical Sketch of Estelle Olive Gasper Naug
Prepared by her family for those attending her memorial service at Broadway Baptist Church Gainesville, GA
April 4, 1994
Estelle Olive Gasper Naug was born in Calcutta b. July 6, 1914. d. 03 26 1994
She was the fourth of nine children. Her father was a clerk for the CME (Chief Mechanical Engineer) at BNR Railway in Khargpur. Her parents were Wilfred John Gasper and Ada Elizabeth Blake Gasper. The Gasper name is Armenian and both Wilfred and Ada had Indian and Welsh ancestry.
Estelle’s parents sent her to a private Anglican school in Calcutta-she went to St. Thomas High School. Before she completed high school she competed and achieved first place among private schools in the state of Bengal in knowledge of the Bible. She excelled in English courses.
After finishing high school at age 16 she started work as typist in the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Office of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway (BNR) in Khargpur. Khargpur is a large railway settlement 72 miles southwest of Calcutta. She took training in shorthand and became a stenographer and secretary. She worked for the railway for 29 years and retired when the family moved to the US.
She was petite and athletic. She ran track and played field hockey until she was 25 and won the singles badminton championship in the State of Bengal at age 34. She continued her athletic activities into her 60’s, enjoying tag games, badminton, and 8-ball on the home pool table.
The Khargpur Union Baptist church with American Baptist missionaries was situated across the street from the Gasper family in Khargpur. Estelle and her family became Baptists. Dad Naug remembers travelling with the family to Calcutta to listen to Dr. Billy Graham in 1942 during a large rainstorm-it was during that storm that Dad Naug was converted.
When Estelle was 23 she met her future-husband—an amateur boxer who worked with the railway workshop as a foreman. He represented the railway in boxing and rugby. Their friendship continued for two years before they married. He waited for two years before he proposed until he became a foreman and had sufficient income to support a family.
Richard and Estelle-better known then as Bob and Ollie—were married December 6, 1939. They had three children—Stephen, Susan and Sherrill.
She sent the children to boarding schools in Nainital in the Himalaya Mountains 1000 miles from home from age 5 until they finished high school. During the 3 months annual holiday December-February, the family would go to the seaside in Puri for a 10 day vacation. About once a year the parents visited their children in school. The trip required two days train ride each way. At age 40 she developed breast cancer and had a radical left mastectomy and subsequent radiation treatment which left her weak and cause medical problems later in life.
In 1960, after waiting 13 years for permission to emigrate to the United States, the Naug family travelled by ship to England to visit relatives and then to the United States to settle. They went directly to Peoria, Illinois where Estell’s two older sisters Evie Seth and Emilene Sarkies had migrated 6 to 13 years earlier.
When they arrived in the United States, they had to learn new household responsibilities. At home, Richard learned to cook and Estelle managed the household finances. Estelle worked as secretary for a CPA firm and later at the nursing school where her daughter Susan was training. In Peoria the Naugs attended the North Sheridan Baptist Church.
At age 55 after recently passing her drivers test, she crashed a car into a utility pole and broke her left upper arm and lacerated her chin and legs. A metal tube was inserted in the arm to hold it together and she slowly recovered. Dad Naug still wears a blue mark on his forehead from the collision.
When she was 68, the Naugs moved south to enjoy better weather during retirement and to live near her daughter and son-in-law Susan and Roger Rochat. During the past 12 years they have made many friends. They have shown hospitality to Roger’s professional colleagues and friends; to members of their own church and to the International Sunday School Class that Roger and Susan attend, and to friends of each of their grandchildren.
Early friends in Gainesville who helped them adapt to local problems include Harrell and Eunice Stephens, Ford and Katrine White and Homer and Gerry Deal.
Ten months after arriving in Gainesville, Estelle Naug suffered intractable chest pain which led to triple-bypass heart surgery. Because of past radiation treatment for breast cancer her chest healed poorly and she underwent five surgical operations simply to ensure healing of the chest muscle and skin. After two months in the hospital she came home to Old Fork Road. Having never weighed more than a 100 pounds, she left the hospital at 78 pounds and with partial deafness from the potent antibiotics she had received.
By 1985 she had recovered enough that she and Richard visited his brother Eddie in Melbourne, Australia and her sister Esme in Perth. In 1988 they travelled to India to visit Susan and Roger and family who were living and working in New Delhi. Dad Naug took the train from New Delhi to Madras to visit his elder brother Lionel.
During 1993 Estelle had increasing difficulty breathing, eating, walking and enjoying company. Susan planned a first-ever Gasper-Seth-Naug family reunion for March 11-13 this year and invited Estelle's relatives from the United States, England, Canada and Australia--34 came.
On the night of February 26, 1994 Estelle suffered a stroke that affected her ability to speak. After 48 hours in the hospital she opened her eyes and reached out her arms toward her husband and said "I love you". This tender, affectionate expression came toward the end of 54 years of marriage, several severe health problems and many years of receiving tender, loving care from her husband. Two days later she went home and spent the rest of the week resting and basking in the early spring sunshine. On Saturday she played a good game of Scrabble; on Sunday night she suffered a massive stroke affecting the right brain and paralyzing the left side of the body.
On Tuesday the relatives began to arrive, and each visited Estelle in
p. 3
the hospital to show their respect and affection, On Saturday March 26 she died peacefully at 9:30 A.M..
Estelle was best known for being the sparkling: conversationalist to many guests during a picnic or for sharp and sassy comments toward family members, As one acquaintance said: "She never met a stranger. "She had a knack for riposte and good humor. She enjoyed watching Jeopardy on television; playing Scrabble with her children on weekends, and she especially liked to eat hot chiles in curried foods. She was opinionated about politics and about people, and she was strong-minded about getting things done. She would make outrageous comments--and make people laugh. She was a prolific letter writer--and when she put her opinions in the letters, she often got into trouble with family and friends--occasionally leading to extended breaks in friendships.
During the past two years she was often housebound--and enjoyed Susan and Roger's weekend visits--both to play Scrabble, to visit, and to take outings to the mall--or to accompany Roger in his periodic visits to a local horse farm to collect sawdust and horse manure for the vegetable garden. Two days before her second stroke she made one last trip with Roger--asking him to stop at a beautiful dairy farm to buy some fresh milk.
At home she often read novels or watched television--in between she would tell the rest of the family or guests what to do. To her family she said: "I'm tired dahrling! I worked for thirty- five years." She negotiated a deal with Roger that if he would plant the flower bulbs this spring, she would split the cost--for over 250 bu1bs. Those flowers are just coming into bloom.
She bet she could beat all of us at the pool table, and nearly always did!
She often used the phrases: "ft's all rubbish!" and "What rot!" Not to mention her pointing at any object and saying "That thing...umph..," as if we knew what she wanted us to do.
Perhaps less well-known to her larger set of friends was the strong Christian faith that she and her husband shared; before each meal they prayed that the food would nourish their bodies so that they could serve God. They maintained daily devotional Bible readings and prayer; they were deacons in the Sheridan Baptist Church in Peoria and enjoyed the fellowship of Broadway Baptist church members in Gainesville In part because of this faith, Estelle never feared death and during the last few years she often expressed a wish to leave the suffering behind and go Home. Her family has honored her oft-stated adamant desire to be cremated; she often said she wanted her ashes placed in the rose garden.
In closing, the family would like to express their deep appreciation for the love shown during the past month by so many dear friends in Gainesville and Atlanta. Many have enjoyed the company of Grandma Naug and many will miss her. We certainly will.