When my grandmother Nora was a little girl her father Otto owned Mueller's Butcher Shop in small-town Wisconsin. I imagine the smells of smoked sausages and the muffled softness of sawdust underfoot. I can almost hear him talking about the weather in German with a customer and the crisp sound of paper being torn from the roll and wrapped around a thick slice of ham. The whir of twine pulled from the spool to wrap up that special cut for a family meal. Can I hear the thwack of a meat cleaver hacking beef into smaller roasts for Sunday dinners? 

I never heard stories of my great grandfather from Nora. However, I do know that this photo captures good times that ended about seven years later when Otto closed his butcher shop and the family's fortunes changed. Otto was sick and could no longer work so Nora left high school and went to work in a factory in 1928. She never returned and worked in factories until an assembly line injury. 

Today her grandchildren are innovators, leaders, and creators. Otto never imagined their lives from his butcher shop but this photo reminds me that he was a dad first, business owner second. Five generations later, hard work, family, and taking care of each other is still who we are. As I work from home with my three children attending virtual school, I imagine what the busy work of the butcher shop was like with Otto's children around. Our family business has changed but the business of being a family stays the same.

– EMC

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