Eulogy

Rochelle Dawn was born to Cecil and Iris in Australia, on September #, 19##. She is the second of three daughters. Her older sister is Margaret. Her younger sister is Noelene.  She is survived by both sisters and many cousins.  She had the good fortune of knowing her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Mom was often ill as a child and spent time on her grandparents farm in the country and with her extended family.

At age fifteen, a friend invited Rowie to start attending activities for youth at the LDS church. Rochelle loved the social scene, the activities and the Gospel. She invited a lot of friends to come to activities, who later were baptized.  After she graduated high school and moved to Sydney, she worked as a data entry specialist, feeding large manilla punch cards into a computer.  She continued to attend church at the local ward.

Rochelle loved to tell her stories. When mom was 21, she was an important    part of her church community.  She was the ward organist, sang in the choir and taught primary. One day the stake president asked Rochelle's bishop who the young lady was playing the organ. When the bishop explained that Rochelle was not yet a member of the church, the stake president told the bishop, that if mom wanted to keep her callings, she needed to be baptized. Mom was baptized two weeks later. 

One night mom was walking on a cobble street in Sydney, on her way to choir practice. She clicked down the street wearing a flared pencil skirt, a cashmere twinset, pearls and stiletto heels. She was tall and elegant, with a cute pixie cut and sassy attitude. An American sailor, on R&R at Sydney harbor, stopped and asked her if she knew where the LDS church was. Rochelle told him to follow her, that she was going there herself. Dad's little joke is that he has been following her ever since. 

Dad wasted no time in his attempt at courtship during the three days he was stationed in Sydney, but good Australian girls had nothing to do with American sailors. Dad finally succeeded in taking mom on a date to the Sydney Zoo, but with mixed results. He asked her to marry him, which she refused, but he did get a kiss, which he recalls as akin to kissing a clam.

They communicated by mail for the next year, but dad seemed to disappear. He recounts being  a very active dater and was engaged or nearly engaged to three girls at the same time.

Dad was in the navy, stationed in southern California, when mom jumped on a boat with her friends. Mom docked in Los Angeles, and though she looked everywhere, could not locate the Statue of Liberty in the Port of Los Angeles. Rochelle and Andy were soon dating. Rochelle worked for the Australian Government Trade Commission in Pasadena, California. 
Andy was soon deployed to the Vietnam war, where he served for  nearly a year. Rochelle moved to British Columbia, closer to her friends. I am told that there were a lot of steamy letters exchanged.

The day Andy was honorably discharged, he jumped on a plane and went up to Vancouver where he took a taxi to Rochelle's flop house and gave her a ring. She accepted. They were married civily on November 3, 1967, and sealed in the Los Angeles temple a year later. 

As newlyweds, Dad worked  in Seattle. Mom got her green card and worked for Dairy Gold in data processing. Two years after they were married, they were blessed with their first child, Lisa Rachel. Two years later their second daughter, Amanda Iris. And two years after that Anna Tia Marie.  Everybody came home to a sweet little house in Ballard. 

Briefly, the family lived on Queen Ann Hill near Seattle. Then bought a little house in Falls City. These were a lot of happy times, when we went camping in the Cascade Mountains with the ward.  Mom loved to get in her car and drive, taking her kids with her, as far east as Idaho, north to Vancouver, and south to Oregon. She was quick to point out beautiful views, mountains, trees, flowers, animals and buildings. She loved the quaint and lovely and the delicious. 

Before church was changed to a three hour block, we met in the morning for Sunday school and later in the afternoon we would have sacrament meeting. Between the meetings, Rochelle would find a quiet place by a stream and feed her family with a picnic lunch she had brought. Sometimes, she would pick up French fries to make "chippy sandwiches." She loved sweets, particularly black licorice, and Cadbury chocolate. Anything that reminded her of Australia. 

A couple times a year, she would phone home. She missed her family and often lamented that she lived so far away. When her husband was away, working in Alaska, Rochelle often felt entirely alone in her life.

As Rochelle's health began to decline, she moved her family eastward, trying to escape the cold wet of Seattle. Cle Elum had been a sweet place to camp, so we stayed there for a bit, but soon moved on to Ellensburg where Rochelle opened a candy store. She loved the interaction with people, but the shop was not open long. We soon moved on to the Wenatchee Valley. 

Wenatchee seemed to hold a lot of answers for mom. She had a family of friends she could trust and rely on, there were good schools for her children, there was bread on the table. I think coming here afforded the first real sense of security she had felt in years.

Rochelle worked as a nanny and a receptionist when we first arrived in Wenatchee. Andy continued working in refrigeration and air conditioning. There are a lot of great memories from this period of time.  Missionary dinners, parties with friends, camping trips and dances. Rochelle was a busy mother, chauffeuring her three teenaged daughters around the town. She was always supportive of our interests, allowing us time for our theatrical pursuits, friends, church activities, karate lessons, gymnasts and dance. She joined the ranks of the mothers who never miss an activity in which her children were involved.

One of my favorite memories of my mother is when I was just learning to drive. We were on our way up the steep hill on Kentucky road. As we approached a stop sign, she told me not to stop and became a bit frantic as I pulled to a stop in our old stick shift Fiat. But I was stubbornly a follower of the law and knew that I was a better driver than my mother thought. Try as I might, I couldn't get that car to go forward. Mom was laughing herself silly in the passenger seat,  begging me to stop and let her drive. My pride wouldn't let me and in the end, the car rolled backward past two orchards down the hill before I could get it going forward. This time, as i approached the sign, I slowed down and kept on going, laughing hysterically beside my mom.

Rochelle began making her Mylar halos to sell at street fairs and festivals in 1987. Rochelle got a lot of happiness putting her halos on her customers heads, she loved that.  She sold her products along parade routes all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and even at the Rose parade in Pasadena, California. She had an insatiable travel bug which took her far and kept her going, even when business wasn't very good. It was really about being able meet new people, and see new places.

People loved Rochelle. And she loved people. She was quick to recognize a kindness and say a heartfelt thank you.  She had a great sense of fun. 

Mom could be unexpectedly kind and empathetic. Many of you have some memory of something mom did for you, which was wholly selfless. This was who she wanted to be. And who she was in her heart. 

As she grew older, she became more and more ill. Sometimes her illness prevented her from a lot of the things she wanted to do. She spent time in a nursing home. In January last year, she was hospitalized after she had respiratory failure. After a week in the intensive care unit on life support, her family and friends gathered around her to bid her farewell. We watched sadly as we expected her next breath to be her last. She motioned Lisa over to whisper a dying wish in her ear.  Mom's raspy voice rattled the words "on the bottom shelf, in the freeze at Fred Meyer. Popsicles, Mango orange. Go get them." Mom recovered quickly and was moved home within the week.  

During this past year, mom mellowed. She had learned to communicate her feeling without so much fire. She appreciated the things she loved a little more and longed to be with her family. She traveled to Portland Oregon many times to visit my sisters. She went to Portland for her birthday three weeks ago, and had dinner with her family at a Chinese restaurant. She had a great time.

The night before mom passed, she was surrounded by her family. We chatted with her for a while, and while she wasn't able to speak or open her eyes, she communicated with us by blinking her closed eyelids. Her sweet loving spirit was so strong and she let us know over and over again how much she loved us and was glad we were there.

The next day, mom passed quickly. She was surrounded by her husband of nearly 44 years and her daughters. We will always remember mom with love.