I soon learned there was some confusion as to who was taking care of this. Soon Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, and Jason's Favorite Aunt Michele were solving the problem.
And then yesterday Jason called asking me if I had any good photos of grandma to be used in the publication of this long delayed notice. I was not at my photo storage device when Jason called, but a couple hours later I was able to see if I could find a suitable photo. That search soon seemed sort of futile.
During that search I did find the photo you see above, of mom and dad and their first born. And then I found some photos I took the last time mom and dad visited me in Texas, back in January of 2009. At the start of that visit I gave mom and dad cowboy hats, and insisted they put them on for any outdoor photos.
You will see some of those photos further down in this blog post.
Oh, I forgot to mention, last night Jason texted me saying he was hoping to meet today with our one and only remaining Whatcom County aunt, who he hoped would have some good photos of mom. Photos of that meeting arrived Saturday afternoon, and are also further down in this blog post.
But, before you get to that, you will get to the final version of what should show up next week in the Skagit Valley Herald, and later in the Whatcom County newspapers. For this blog post version I used the photo of mom which I sent to Jason last night as being the best I could come up with...
January 30, 1933 - September 20, 2019
Shirley Slotemaker, 86, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, passed away peacefully September 20, 2019 surrounded by the love of her family.
Shirley was born January 30, 1933 in Bellingham, Washington to LaVerne & Vera (Sundean) Wilder and attended school in Whatcom County, graduating from Lynden High in 1950.
On August 6, 1951, she married John “Jack” Slotemaker at her parents' home in Lynden and remained by his side until his passing in 2017.
Jack and Shirley lived in Eugene, Oregon and Mount Vernon, WA before settling in Burlington to raise their five children. Shirley was primarily a housewife and mother, but she also operated a daycare out of her home and later worked at her favorite restaurant for her favorite son-in-law. Jack and Shirley retired in 1995, living in Hoodsport, WA; Yuma, AZ, and finally Sun Lakes, AZ.
Shirley ran a tight ship, raising five kids in a three-bedroom, one-bath house. She took her role as homemaker seriously, and served home-cooked meals every night, always had homemade cookies in the cookie jar and usually a pie or cake on the counter. She hosted large family gatherings for many holidays and often joined in the big softball game across the street after the meal. She will be missed.
Shirley was preceded in death by her beloved husband; both of her parents; her stepfather Dr. James Porter; and her three siblings. Shirley is survived by her children Dean, Jake, Nancy (Loretta Spencer), Jackie (Jack) Weston, and Michele (Kristin); grandchildren, Jason, Joseph (Monique), Christopher and Jeremy Weston, David, Theo and Ruby; and great-grandsons, Spencer and Henry.
There will be no services.
Shirley will be laid to rest at Monumenta Cemetery, in Lynden WA.
____________________
And now the aforementioned photos.
The first photo is the one I cropped to make the photo you see above. We were at Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine.
Mom and dad's 2009 visit to Texas seems so recent in my memory. Hard to believe it was a decade ago.
It being January there was nothing much going on at the State Fair of Texas Fairgrounds, so I was able to drive mom and dad right up to the Cotton Bowl.
Above we are still at the State Fair of Texas Fairgrounds, with the Midway behind mom and dad. And dad texting a message to, I think it was, sister Jackie in Arizona. Dad was an early adopter of the text messaging thing. Years before I finally got around to doing so. And dad did his texting on a pre-smart phone.
The above used to be known as one of the most unique McDonald's in the world. I have been told it no longer exists. I do not know what replaced it. I long ago webpaged it and that page used to generate a lot of AdSense action. I remember mom and dad had hot fudge sundaes at this McDonald's, not wanting to over eat because we were heading to Babe's Chicken House in Roanoke for our evening feeding.
The above is not Babe's. It is Riscky's BBQ in the Fort Worth Stockyards. We did the All You Can Eat Ribs option. I was embarrassed by the big pile of bones which eventually piled up on the table. I had no idea mom and dad liked BBQed ribs so much.
And now on to today's photos from Jason.
Last night Jason told me he was hoping to meet up with Aunt Judy in LaConner.
For the enlightenment of Fort Worth ignorami, LaConner is a Skagit Valley tourist town. LaConner is a small town, a small town which somehow managed to built an actual iconic, signature type bridge, over actual water, taking about a year to build the actual feat of bridge building engineering.
I digressed. Back to the photos.
Jason's email with the photos contained no descriptive text. I am guessing the photos were not taken in LaConner, but were taken in Jason's Fidalgo Drive-In in Anacortes.
Above that is Aunt Judy standing in front of Joey, who is next to Jason, who is holding Hank Frank, with Hank Frank's mama, Monique, on the right.
And above Aunt Judy is now holding Hank Frank.
I have no idea what Hank Frank is doing above. It appears he is walking at a location he probably should not be walking on. Hank Frank is mom and dad's second great-grandson, with the first being Hank Frank's cousin, Spencer Jack. Mom and dad never got to meet their second great-grandson.
However, a few months ago, whilst I was in Arizona, Joey sent his grandma and me a video in which Joey claimed Hank Frank was saying hi to grandma. I think I YouTubed that video, but this blog post is already way too long and it takes way too long to find a video and copy the embed code.
Thanks to Aunt Judy for helping with the find a photo of mom project. If mom had not been so camera shy this would not be so difficult....
No comments:
Post a Comment