Today I had to say goodbye to my lifelong guide and mentor, there is one less angel on earth. You taught me to be strong although this world always had you in it, going forward will be a little harder without your love.
My mom was raised by a single mom in the 1930s and 40s in the Mission District of San Francisco, a latchkey kid when latchkey kids didn’t exist. A strong willed woman of Irish-German descent. She used to talk about how she was an avid roller skater in her youth, a flyer: the guys would hold her by the arms and legs and throw her in the air. She was a military wife through World War II, The Korean War and Vietnam who took care of her family while always holding down a job and surviving on little. She took care of my dad when he got encephalitis while we were stationed in New York, driving hours everyday to the hospital while ensuring her 4 kids were being taken care of. She became a widow at the young age of 39 and never remarried as my dad was the love of her life. After his death we moved to Cupertino and she raised us kids while working as a switchboard operator at Lockheed.
She would often join Lily, the kids and I on weekend trips to my runs and was known as Miss California by my running friends in Lake Tahoe, a title she proudly wore. A person who always looked for the good in people, my mom was always the first to lend a helping hand. She loved animals, gardening and an occasional Seagram’s and coke. She was sharp and independent until the end, a true matriarch that was the glue of our family. The love she offered to everyone was evident by the love she received from so many. My sadness is only because I will miss her dearly; I know she lived a tough but beautiful life loved by everyone she knew. Say hi to dad, Marion, Joan, Millie, Earl, Roy and Pat—the group is back together now.
Friends can pay their respects on Wed. April24, 2019 from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM at Black Cooper Sander Funeral Home. Services will be on Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 11:00 AM at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, CA.
Donations are preferred to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
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