Aunt Wanda

Wednesday morning I learned of the passing of my Aunt Wanda. 

I'm so thankful we got to be with her last year when her daughter Pat and her husband Bill drove her
all the way from Portland to Clovis. 

I know my Dad very much appreciated their visit too.
She said this would probably be her last trip to Clovis.

I think she knew.


As you can see our grandson Grant liked her too....about 4 1/2 years ago in Lake Oswego, Oregon


She was 94. And amazing. She looked and acted much younger. Much younger.

I don't know any details yet. Just that she died while visiting her daughter Paula in Maryland.

I didn't know her very well growing up since they lived so far away,
but my parents spoke very fondly of her. 
She was married to my Dad's oldest brother, Irving. 

I smile every time I think of Wanda and Irving together again. 


But I know this has got to be so hard on her daughters, Pat and Paula. 
They obviously had a very close loving relationship.



7 comments:

Richard said...

I remember visiting Irv, Wanda, Paula, and Pat in Walla Walla, WA in 1960. We visited a Ralston Purina plant and I watched dad and Irv play cribbage. They were playing for 10 cents a point and I remember asking if mom was aware of the table stakes. (I never knew Irv as an adult, but I'm sure we would have been great golf buddies.) We also attended the local Walla Walla Ward on Sunday. We stopped at a pancake house in Baker, OR driving home and paid to eat pancakes...that was a first and a last.

Grandma Honey said...

You were only 8 at the time, and you remember all that?? I was 6 and while I do definitely remember the trip, only vaguely. But I do remember Wanda being so nice and smiling a lot. She and the girls made us feel so welcome. Even at 6 years old I could feel that from them.

Richard said...

Jill, age must be affecting your memory. We stayed at a motel in Klamath Falls on the way up, but got an early start on our return (thus pancakes in Baker) and deadheaded it all the way home. It was one of three family motel experiences prior to 1966 when I stayed at the Drake in Chicago with dad. We stayed at the Travel Lodge across the street from the LA Temple when we were all sealed in about 1959. It was a big time motel then. It had a pool and vending machines. The other stay was at a Holiday Inn near Ghirardelli Square in SF. We went in July of about 1965 and I insisted on using the pool despite heavy fog and temps in the 50's. You spent your allowance on postcards in the lobby...

Robin said...

I must have been the better traveler. At one time I listed about 12 trips I took with mom and dad... San Francisco, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Monterey, Las Vegas... I know in Tahoe they wanted to take us to tour the Bonanza Set but we preferred riding the elevators in the hotel. In Sacramento we stayed at the El Mirador where Donna King Ashjian or one of her sisters had been paid to swim in the pool that had a window in the bar - it was in disrepair and painted over when we were there. We didn't like Monterey because the doorman was intimidating. We were at the MGM Grand in Vegas when it was new. We loved the glass elevator at the Mark Hopkins in SF. In those days kids didn't stay for free and I always wondered if I was a criminal.

Richard said...

Yes, you middle kids did more traveling than us. Jill and I stayed home with the twins and Chris while you three were living it up. And Donna King swam at the Hacienda in Fresno in her mermaid suit.
In 1966 dad took me to an insurance trip in Chicago. Victor Borja performed at the final night banquet and they served a flaming dessert. We drove a new Corvette home. Dad couldn't figure out where the luggage went and the porters couldn't figure it out either. It was a big scene in front of the hotel, so he had me squish in the seat w the suitcases until we got to the outskirts of town. We visited Nauvoo, spent nights in Des Moines, Cheyenne, SLC two days for repairs, and Winnemucca. We stopped one day for lunch at a Dairy Queen in Ogalalla, NE and I was horrified to read on the signboard outside that their burgers were grilled on a brazier...I tried to suggest we go somewhere else and was relieved there were no brassieres in sight once we got inside. I really suffered over that one.
In 1969 mom and dad took me and John to an insurance meeting at The Doral in Miami. We drove a new Lincoln Continental all the way home to Fresno and spent nights in Chipley, FL (dad took me to a tent revival on the outskirts of town. It may have been a KKK rally for all we knew) New Orleans, Austin, El Paso, and Casas Grandes, AZ. While passing through Houston we stopped at the Rice U bookstore and bought a t-shirt as well as Tulane in NO. Many years later when I visited The Doral in Miami and Rice University in Houston I recognized many of the landmarks and intersections from that first trip.

Grandma Honey said...

I must not have gone on all of your family vacations because most of this does not sound familiar at all. I do remember going on a few Allstate trips with just Mom and Dad, and maybe one of the twins. One time we brought baby Scott with us. Mom and Dad were at a fancy Allstate dinner while I stayed back in the hotel room with Scotty. I was 11, and he was 2 months. His bottle was so cold that I carried Scott downstairs to the hotel restaurant and asked a waitress if she would warm it up for him. He was held and kissed by a few hovering waitresses, and then we went back to our room. When Mom and Dad got back later on that night, I still remember how she gasped when she saw red lipstick on Scotty's face and head. I explained what happened and while she looked concern, she quickly recovered. You know how Mom was. Never worried long about anything.

Karen Mortensen said...

So sorry for the loss of your aunt. She seemed like a very nice lady.

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