The day before Thanksgiving Ben's grandma Bonnie, his last grandparent, passed away in the comfort of her daughter Shelley's home, surrounded by loved ones. We had visited her at Shelley's house for the last time on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Ben was crushed. Since that day, he's been trying really hard not to show any emotion. I told him, you just lost your last grandparent, if you need to cry do it. It will make you feel better. Stop holding it in.
Trish called us and let us know when the service was going to be. It was going to be held December 12th in Auburn. Ben made sure he didn't have anything scheduled on that day. We told her we would be there and probably go to Shelley's house afterwards for food. Trish said they would do the same even though she really didn't want to because of Covid.
We got up, found our nice clothes (since we don't wear them that often) ate a light breakfast and got ready to head to the cemetery. We called Trish along the way to tell her we made it onto I-5 and we were in the Lakewood area and to verify which cemetery we were going to. We indeed had the right one. Ben wanted to stop at a Safeway to get some flowers and the closest one we knew about was in downtown Auburn so we went there once we got off of I-5 onto Hwy 18.
We pulled into the Safeway and some guy working for King County was handing out free masks so I asked for one and he gave me four of them. Free masks! I gave Ben two and I kept two for our vehicles. We grabbed a bouquet of flowers and some drinks and paid for them in the self service area.
We drove up the hill to Mountain View Cemetery. I was telling Ben the last time I drove up this road was about 10 years ago when I came up here to grab a geocache from the park that was also up here. The name is appropriate because you get a great view of Mount Rainier on a clear day. We followed the service signs and parked near Trish and Amy who had gotten there a little bit before we did. The ceremony was going to be outside. It was a very nice yet cold afternoon. We noticed people we recognized. Shelley was getting everything polished before the ceremony started. We walked around and talked to a few people we haven't seen in a while, looked at the photos, the really cool bear wreath Trish and Amy got for her, the little things on the table Bonnie collected over the years and had a short conversation with Shelley. She wanted Ben and Amy and the rest of the grandchildren, to read part of the eulogy that Shelley prepared. She gave Ben his portion and Amy read part of the program we all received.
The ceremony started and you could hear people sniffling and trying to hold back tears. Shelley had a hard time talking to us but did compose herself a few times. Then we took some time and each grandchild read a portion of the eulogy.
Bonnie Jean Crawford was born on January 11, 1923 in Oregon City, Oregon to her mother Leona Daue and father Anton Heinrich. Her parents got married on October 7, 1923. Her parent's settled down in Mulino, Oregon where they started their family. Daughters Rosaline and Bonnie and son Tony. They bought a farm with 80 acres and put it to good use growing hay to feed their dairy cows. They sold milk and cream to the local stores and neighbors.
Bonnie said she saw herself more as a tom boy. She found working out in the fields with her father was more exciting than learning domestic chores in the kitchen or playing with dolls.
She loved her father and spent all her time with him. He taught her what the true value of hard work was. She started at the age of four where she would sit on the tractor and watch her father plow, seed, and cut the hay. At the age of five she was taught to drive the tractor. By the age of 10, she could plow, seed, cut and bail the hay then take it to the barn for the cows.
She made pets out of all the farm animals. She love her mother's cow, Clara Bell, and a dog named Scotty, that she dressed in baby clothes, put it in a baby carriage and strolled around the yard.
She would make money doing several jobs some with her mother. She could pick 10 crates of strawberries in a day. She also would pick raspberries, cherries, green beans, tomatoes and corn for the local farmers.
At the age of 11, after an afternoon of picking green beans, she met and fell in love with a handsome young man, named Chuck, that she met swimming at the Moalla River. She knew that someday she would marry him. In 1952, at the age of 14, she hear he was back n town after being in the military. She wrote a letter and found his father Harry and asked him to give him the letter. By 1954 they were married. She got her man at the age of 16.
They moved to Bremerton, Washington where Chuck worked at the ship yards and had their first child, David. They moved back to Mulino, Oregon, bought property and started a turkey farm while they had three other children, Joyce, Shelley and Richard.
Bonnie had to learn now the art of keeping house and cooking. They had many a burnt meal. Chuck also taught her how to sweep without putting it under the sofa or bed.
Like the farm she grew up on with her parents, she made pets out of the farm animals. Glow was her favorite cow and Henryetta was her favorite turkey. She unfortunately, had to prepare Henryetta for Thanksgiving one year. She proceeded to pluck Henryetta while alive but couldn't come to put an axe to her so she wrapped the poor turkey in a blanket and put it next to the wood stove so it wouldn't get cold.
They sold the farm and moved to Pacific, Washington in 1962. They bought their first home in Auburn. Bonnie worked many jobs, making fishing poles, pressing laundry and selling real estate. Then she found for forever job working for Boeing for 29 years. She never lost her skill of being a hard worker. She received employee of the month more than 10 times and earned many employee awards.
Bonnie and Chuck vacationed in Nashville and she fell in love with a shop that had nothing but teddy bears. This was heaven to her.
Her biggest love was her five grandchildren. Aaron, Jason, Ben, Trevor and Amy. She glowed when spending time with them. She will now look over them from above. So remember Grandma is looking down watching you. Someday in a moment of silence you may hear her saying "I love you this much"!
After the reading of her eulogy and program, Shelley asked everyone if we would go up to the casket with our flower she handed each of us and share a favorite memory or story with the group. When it ws my turn, I had to come up with something fast. I've only known her since 2014 so I didn't have very many stories or memories so I shared the Wednesday dinners we used to do at her house. I added that I thought it was funny when she was eating her food, one bite for her and one bite for the dogs. I heard a few people chuckle.
Everyone went up and said a few and there were hardly any dry eyes.
I was glad we were able to have a ceremony during Covid and that we were able to have it outside on such a nice day for December. We sure lucked out today. Covid had really ruined it for everyone because we were barely able to go see Bonnie in the nursing home and wasn't able to when she was in the hospital for a short amount of time. I really feel awful that many people all over the world weren't able to be with their elderly loved ones during their last days because of Covid and the Covid rules. What terrible times we are in because we can't get moments with our loved ones back. Once they are gone, they are gone. We cleaned up and we all caravanned back to Shelley's house for food.
We stayed for maybe two hours. The food was delicious. There was an assortment of pasta dishes, potatoes, turkey, ham, veggies, fruit, rolls and some desserts. We visited with everyone who came to the ceremony at the cemetery and then it was time to go. I asked Ben if he could ask Shelley if we could have one of Bonnie's teddy bears to have as a keepsake and she said of course. She and Ben went to the room and Ben picked one out. Some hugs were given and we headed out.
Since we drove separate from Ben's mom, sister and Ed, we decided to grab a cache on our way over to Trish's house. We drove the back way down to the valley. I checked the geocaching app and saw there was one along the way we could grab. Mega Mtn View (GC6EY6N) took us into a side neighborhood off of Military Road near a great view of Mount Rainier. The cache was hidden behind a fire hydrant in the rock wall. Luckily, this cache was a quick find inside the rock wall. I got out and signed our names and got a few pictures of our visit.
From there, we continued down the hill onto the Orting Hwy and then got onto McCutcheon and then finally onto Rhodes Lake Rd. We pulled into his mom's driveway and brought our bag of extra clothes in so we could change into comfy clothes. Last time we were here, we did a bunch of chores for Trish but didn't have the right faucet for the kitchen sink. That finally came in the mail...the right one, this time. Ben took a few minutes to install that and then he fixed the light switches in the hallway and in the office. We stayed for a few hours playing games and hanging out before we had to head home.
It didn't take us very long to get home. There, we took the kitties out of their cat room, since they've been in there all day, we still don't trust that they can be in the rest of the house by themselves. I spent some time getting stuff ready for Erika's birthday party the next day and then we headed for bed.
Next Adventure: Erika's Unicorn Birthday Party
1 comment:
Thank you very much for this tribute to my family Val ❤️
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