To earn money for her own necessities and augment her parent's meager income before her marriage, Melba worked for a family in St. George as a house servant. She would get up before daylight and jog across town to light the wood burning stove in the home so her employers could arise to warmth. (Mom said she loved getting up early and see how fast she could jog across town. During the cool crisp winter mornings her breath puffed small clouds in from of her as she ran.) She then would help tend the children and clean the house each day.
In one of the tender love letters Melba's sweet heart Lee Laub wrote, he told her how happy he was to know she liked kids because he wanted at least one. He also told her that soon her working days would be over. She could quit working for the ungrateful family. she would have to cook and wash clothes only for him, if she so chose, while they lived happily ever after.
Knowing that they ended up with thirteen children and the cooking and laundry that came with them, this letter is especially poignant.
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