Our mom was born in Jersey City, NJ. She was an only child, raised by her father who was an artist, and photographer, and her mom who stayed at home with her. Our mom would tell us about her apartment living, her solo train rides as a teenager into New York City to explore on her own, and also about her summers at the Jersey Shore. Our mom moved by herself to Washington, D.C. to Georgetown University to study Language and Linguistics. She graduated from Georgetown in 1963.
Our mom met our dad, got married, and moved across the country to Fort Lewis, Washington. Chris was born there. Our parents moved quite frequently in the early years of their marriage. Each of their four kids being born in a different state.
We were lucky too to have visited many spots in the U.S. as kids. We spent our summers on Sanibel Island. Our mom would walk on the beach for hours searching for shells, so much so that we would set out looking for her worrying she had gotten into trouble. She loved Sanibel, the beach and her seashells. She crafted some amazingly beautiful things from her shells.
Our family moved to Maryland in 1979. Our parents built their dream home here, and our mom enjoyed making our home a beautiful place to grow up in. She loved the frequent visits to her yard from deer, fox, and birds. She’d sit for hours in her kitchen on her couch reading the newspaper, soaking up the sunshine, and watching the activity in the back yard. Her home was her sanctuary.
In the early 80’s our lives were turned upside when our dad, and his entire family walked away from us. This unexpected life change forced our mom to pick up the pieces and support us kids physically, emotionally, and financially all by herself. We don’t know how she did it, going from a stay at home mom to taking care of us kids, and our home all by herself. She put us first always.
With this life change, she attended classes again to become a paralegal, and received her certificate. She then started her career in mortgage banking. Mom picked up all of the tedious, stressful, and sometimes complicated positions involved in the mortgage process with ease.
We don’t know how our mom kept us in our home with no father, and actually very little change to our lives. We even kept up with our family trips with visits to the Bahamas, Caribbean, and even Tahiti. Her dedication to each of us must have been so engrained in us as each of us kids as adults would speak to her every single day, and counted on her valuable input.
Our mom became a Grannie with Andrew’s birth in 1999. She was the greatest support for Andrew as we tried to grasp his care and his needs. Mom would attend every doctor appointment for Andrew and was asked almost at every visit, was she a doctor or nurse? Mom was so smart and worked extremely hard in supporting Andrew. Our mom questioned everything, and left no stone unturned when it came to so many things, but mostly searching for how to get Andrew the help he needed. She was at our house helping most of the week. She loved to have Andrew and her other grand babies curled up in blankets napping in her lap. She enjoyed her experiences with her grandkids - traveling with Collin, and Amelia, and meeting Ava in Guatemala. Ultimately, our mom would have 10 grandkids, all of them she adored.
In 2017, mom developed sepsis and spent a week in the ICU. Her health started to turn at this point in her life. Slowly over these past six years, her body began to fail her. Her super strength once again helped her to cope with her failing body, and her pain, and the dementia.
We are grateful to our brother Jon for caring for her in their home for six years. Mom was able to stay with her family in her own home until her last breath.
We were so fortunate to have such an incredibly dedicated, loving mom, and Grannie.
Per her wishes, our family will be holding a small graveside service in the near future where she’ll be laid to rest alongside her parents and her son.
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