Anna Rita Borchardt: A Life Story

My Grandmother Anna Rita Borchardt

ANNA RITA BORCHARDT was born October 3, 1925, in Queens County, New York, to AUGUSTUS HENRY BORCHARDT and ETHEL J. SHARPE.  She lived in the Bronx until the age of 10, when her father and step-mother (who also happened to be her AUNT LILLIAN) brought her to Bay City, Michigan.

Anna (standing) and Friend

Anna (shortest) and Friend

Anna, Step-Mother, and Brothers in New York

She lived in Bay City, Michigan, until October 24th, 1944, when she married LEON JUNIOR NEVEAU (my grandfather) and moved to Hampton Township, Michigan.

Anna as a young woman. 

Leon Junior Neveau, Anna’s Husband 

Sometime in the 1950s, ANNA worked in the kitchen of Bay City General Hospital. In the  1960’s, she worked as a Nursing Assistant at Bay Medical Care Facility in Hampton Township, Michigan. She was forced to medically retire in the 1970’s.

She was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bay City, Michigan, for over forty-years.

Original Immanuel Lutheran Church 

She lived in Hampton Township, Michigan, until August 19, 1987, when she died of heart failure at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Saginaw, Michigan. She was 62. She left behind five children, several grandchildren (including myself), and her husband, LEON JUNIOR. LEON followed her into death two-months later.

Anna sitting on steps, Bay City, Michigan

Anna and her dog, Rex

I try to end these stories on a high note as often as possible, so let me share a funny story.

ANNA used to give her husband plenty of grief for his fondness of beer.  She thought that when he drank, he drank too many. So ‘ol LEON figured out a way to outsmart his pedantic wife. Since ANNA didn’t mind if he had one, two, or even three beers, he figured he’d just slam a few beers each time he went into the basement to grab another. That way, he’d be able to drink as many as he wanted but his wife would only notice the two or three he brought upstairs with him. It was a foolproof plan, or so he thought.

ANNA was no dummy. She noticed that LEON was going through too many cases of beer for only drinking a couple a night, so she made her way into the basement and conducted a search. She found a stash full of empty beer cans hidden behind the furnace, so she gathered them up and placed them directly atop LEON’S car, so when he came out in the morning to go to work, he’d know immediately that the jig was up…He used to stash fifths of whiskey in the garage and she found those, too.