There is lots of development on both sides of the interstate now. I hope your aunt and uncle got a good price for their farm. My grandparents got enough to retire on when they sold their farm in Lombard, Illinois. Way back around 1968.
I think they sold off part of it. How much, I’m not sure, but that was probably before the 1970s. But the house and a decent chunk of farmland was still in the family’s hands after the death of my grand-aunt. They may still have it today 30 years later. We didn’t have much if any contact with her grandchildren, they were not exactly “nice” people (greedy).
My grand-aunt was a very nice lady, but I think the grandchildren held her responsible for the fact their dad was a drunk (which had to do with his poor choices, not her). I remember the second year we went up for the family reunion (1980), the son, who was then just 50, had apparently dropped dead in the kitchen from a heart attack. I don’t remember having met him despite it having been a “family” reunion (I don’t think the kids, who were maybe around 20 years old, were there, either, despite living nearby).
Within 5 years, the “kids” punted their grandmother out of her house (despite having all her faculties) and stuck her in that Dousman nursing home. The nursing home did not take good care of her and allowed her teeth to rot out and she went blind. Frankly, had we known the situation in hindsight, we might’ve brought her down here to Tennessee to stay with us if at all possible.
We saw her the one last time before her death. My parents couldn’t find her in the nursing home — but I did. She had physically deteriorated so much she almost looked like a man, and I picked her out right away because she looked almost exactly like her little brother, that being my late grandfather (imagine my shock, almost 9 years after he died, to see the spitting image of my late grandfather sitting in a wheelchair !).
What was alarming is that with all that physical deterioration (and she was about 89, though looked over 100) her faculties were ALL there. She didn’t once complain about the situation. Pushed her around in her wheelchair outside in the fall leaves of October, which she sadly couldn’t see (or perhaps just barely). My father wanted to take a photo, but I told him (and although she wouldn’t say as much) that she wouldn’t want to be remembered like that. She passed away perhaps a month or so later.
As an aside, when we used to visit there in Oconomowoc, we used to go eat at the nearby Silver Lake Supper Club. Did you ever go there for a meal ? We stayed at the Olympic Resort a few times as well.