HER FAMILY
Mayva Kottke (left), sits with her birth mother, Marsella Hinz Mackereth (middle), and Mayva’s daughter, Shelly. It was the first and only time Mayva met Marsella. Submitted.
“ Thank you for giving me life" BY SUE SMITH-GRIER One look at Mayva Kottke and you can tell she is an outdoors woman, good looking and rugged. Her smile is warm and inviting. The sparkle in her eyes reflects happiness. As she recounts her life’s story, it is obvious that her appearance emulates a life well lived. A Happy Childhood Mayva always knew she was adopted. Her parents made sure she felt special. “They said they walked down rows of babies and picked me because I had big beautiful brown eyes and smiled at them. 24 | Her Voice Fall/Winter 2021
That always made me feel wanted and special,” she said. In those days, babies were not adopted at birth. They were kept for a few months to make sure they were developing normally before being eligible for adoption. Mayva was four months old when her parents took her home. Her parents also adopted another girl, Katie, two and a half years later. This time they picked one with big beautiful blue eyes. Growing up on a farm, Mayva enjoyed the outdoor life, always working with her father and going barefoot, “ . . . except for the chickens. It’s hard to walk barefoot in a chicken coop and miss the poop.” Since
there were no boys, she became the boy of the family. “I spent every moment outside and helped in the barns and in the fields and loved every minute of it,” Mayva said. She was driving a tractor and working the fields by the time she was 11. “I would stand up and drag the field and sing at the top of my lungs. I just loved it.” Surrounded by a loving family, her grandparents lived with them in the farmhouse, her aunt and uncle only a mile away, Mayva had an idyllic childhood. “I really enjoyed living and growing up there. We were blessed financially so never lacked for much,” she reflected.
