Jennifer Mattson Stewart is 40!

Brand new Daddy and Daughter.  Jen 3 days old.

Could be the cutest picture ever!

Bear Skin Rug~8 Weeks

Grandpa Ross and Gramma Jo 
came to help and visit!
Nap time!

Cousin Rebecca and cute bonnets.

Kicking back in the orange rocker with 
her baby beans and hair brush.

 

Only Picture of Jen and her

 Daddy's brother, Uncle Gary

Mamma and Jenny

More hair

 

And some more HAIR! Ugh!

 

Cuteness

Grandma Gloria and Grampa Fred

She loved this Baby Beans dolly

Jen always has loved Halloween and Pumpkins

 

I made these flat, wooden ornaments 

so she wouldn't break any and get hurt...

we still have some of them to this day.

First Easter just before turning one!

 

Baptism picture at 8

Engaged!

Petals on your Flower, Jen

Happy Birthday Auntie Jen~You are loved!

In the end is is all about growing a lot of love, 

a beautiful family  

and cutting a lot of hair
until we get it right!

Have a great birthday, Sweetheart,

 and many many more.

 After 39  it's upward and onward...

it only gets better.

Thank you for making these the 

best years of our lives!

Beautiful Cake, Lowell!

Josephine Roberta Reese 1919-2003

 When you lose a parent in death, albeit a temporary separation, it is heart wrenching.   On Mother's Day a few years a go I added these thoughts and poem to my main blog.  The three photos on the funeral notice below are of my beautiful Mom.  Nothing can fill the void in my life since she has passed on to a better place.  She is always with me.  I am thankful for that.

My Mother is Always With Me

My mother is always with me.

She's the whisper of the leaves
as I walk down the street.
She's the smell of bleach
in my freshly laundered socks.
She's the cool hand on my brow
when I'm not feeling well.
My mother lives inside my laughter.
She's crystallized in every tear drop.
She's the place I came from
She's my first home.
She's the map that I follow
with every step that I take.

She's my first l♥ve
and my first heart♥break.
Nothing on earth can separate us.
Not time, not space,
Not even death
will ever separate me
from my mother.
I carry her inside of me.

~Author Unknown~
 When I see beauty like this around me
it makes me know she is still with me.

I will be writing more about her for this blog soon.

Grace Eileen Colberg Hallsted Hoffman Part 2

This picture is of my Aunt when she was 26 years old
She was Miss North Dakota one year!

To the end she was still just as lovely, just as beautiful and happy as she ever was. She passed away from Alzheimer's Disease but she remained, at peace and grateful and gracious all of her days. She was a blessing to all and she counted her own blessings daily...one by one. She told Chuck that that, along with her love of Jesus Christ and her family was her secret to a happy life. I talked to her about a month ago and she was a delightful, loving Aunt. She will be missed so dearly and never forgotten.

Near the final resting place of our sweet Aunt

Friday morning we had a private burial in Mount Hope Cemetery, in College Place, Washington. This was the most beautiful, crisp morning and everyone said Aunt Grace would have called it 'glorious.' The cemetery is very small and well-kept and the descriptive words that keep filling my mind are extremely peace-filled and full of lush, green grass and shady trees.

Mount Hope
Our Dad was buried in the Garden of Hope
in the Oakmont Cemetery, Lafayette, CA
They have many gardens like Faith, Peace,
Etc. but he got Hope also.
Ours is a family of Hope!

This is looking to the east of Aunt Grace's burial spot and under the second birch tree in the foreground is where our grandmother, Alice Grace Godfrey Colberg Yeasley is buried. The last time Jim and I were here was when she was buried in June of 1969. I wish he and our kids and grandkids and Steve and Gary's families could have been here today. I know they all wanted to be. It was wonderful to be able to visit our Grandma's grave again. Her little great-grandson, Caleb Brown, scattered the rose petals on her grave. Aunt Grace looked just like her mom and they were so much alike in personality!

Grandma's Grave

Aunt Grace is buried right next to her husband, Carl Hallsted, who passed away in 1976 and is the father of her five children. Their graves are to the west of Grandma and nearer the tiny road.

Just before the graveside service. It was very bitter sweet.

Each family member was given rose from Judy and Ray's garden to

place on her casket and many tears were left there too.

She was deeply loved by us all.

Obituary
Mrs. Hoffmann was born June 17, 1922, in Linton, North Dakota, to Philip and Alice Grace Godfrey Colberg. She attended elementary school and graduated from high school in North Dakota...During her high school years, she loved dancing, skating, playing in band, hiking, swimming, and cheerleading. She attended the University of North Dakota in Fargo for one year, studying home economics. In 1946, she and Carl Hallsted married in Reno, Nevada. They moved with their five children to the College Place area from Salem, Oregon in 1958. She had worked as a bookkeeper and Director of Student Accounts and Labor for seven years at Walla Walla University and as Patient Business Manager at Walla Walla General Hospital for eleven years. Mr. Carl Hallsted died in 1976.

On April 11, 1982, she and Walter Hans Hoffmann married at the Village Church in College Place. Following her marriage to Walter, they lived in Sacramento, California, Luxemburg, Germany, Redding, California and Vancouver, Washington, returning here in 2004. After retirement, she volunteered extensively including over 2000 hours for the City Clerk and Police Department, Redding Medical Center, and the Literacy Council in Redding. She was past president of the National Credit of Women of America, PTA President during her children’s school years, a delegate to the North Pacific Union Conference and General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Constituency meetings, and a member of the Village Seventh-day Adventist Church where she had served as Sabbath School superintendent and wedding coordinator. Her hobbies included oil painting, swimming, and playing the piano. However, her greatest pleasures in life revolved around her family and she really looked forward to week-long reunion held annually in honor of her since 1976.

She is survived by her husband at their home; two daughters: Jan Hallsted of College Place and Judy Hall of Milton-Freewater, Oregon; three sons: Chuck Hallsted also of College Place, David Hallsted of Woodland, Washington, and Jake Hallsted of Katy, Texas; thirteen grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren, one niece and two nephews. She was preceded in death by her brother, Ross Colberg.

Grace Colberg Hallsted Hoffmann 1922~2008

When Abe Lincoln died someone said, "He is gone but not forgotten now he belongs to the ages." "So it is with Grace," the minister said at her memorial service.

 

Grace Eileen Colberg Hallsted Hoffmann~

June 17, 1922~September 7, 2008

The chapel where the memorial service was held in Walla Walla, Washington holds special significance to the family. Some graduated from their high school academy here, others married here and Aunt Grace and Uncle Walter were married here also. She had come full circle in her life that took her to many different places and also brought her home. It was so wonderful of Uncle Walter to bring her back home to live out her last years near her beloved children. I know this was the desire of her heart for many years. I'll always love Uncle Walt for that. What grandmother could want more than to live out her twilight years surrounded by her beautiful family, with a husband that was mindful of this great desire of hers. His work took them to Europe for three years on their honeymoon and these past four years she has been home. It was a final "Honeymoon" of sorts.

Top Row l to r: Chuck, Jan, David
Bottom Row l to r: Jake, Auntie Grace, Judy

The Chapel

The service was just beautiful with Chuck and Jake speaking and Chuck sharing his own thoughts and reading many tributes written about his mother by all the family and some close friends. Steve and I were both honored to be asked to contribute one.

Note that one of the songs sung was "Amazing Grace"
That song has an added meaning for me now!

Here is the tribute I wrote. I will add Steve's also with his permission.

My Aunt Grace was a very important person in my life. She was a mentor to me in many things. I loved watching her enjoy life with such enthusiasm, passion and vitality. Throughout my life she has always been available to listen and to share things with me. She was such a loving person and when Aunt Grace hugged you, you could feel the sincerity of that love. In that moment she made you feel so special to her. What a wonderful gift she had for uplifting everyone around her. I loved it when she would tell me about her childhood memories with my Dad and all the fun they had.

She was with us when our father died and it was so comforting to have her there. She was always so supportive but especially then. She just knew what to do and how to do it and she was a great comfort. Her faith was unwavering and through the trials in her life she remained grateful to God for her blessings.

Aunt Grace was such a family-oriented person. Whenever I talked with her she would, fill me in on all of her children and grandchildren, their successes and joys as well as their trials. None of my cousins will ever need to wonder if they were loved!

We followed her to just about every place she ever lived except Luxembourg and we loved visiting with her. She was so generous and giving and beautiful inside and out. Whenever I was with her I felt a connection to my grandparents and my Dad, like no other time. Now being with my cousins I feel a strong connection to our entire family. I realized today that a lot of my love for family came directly from her influence in my life. She left a beautiful legacy of love for us all. She will never be forgotten.

"I’m Steve Colberg the eldest son of Aunt Grace’s brother, Ross. She was one of the most joyous and loving beings I ever had the pleasure to know. She always greeted us with open arms and a big smile. Grace is such a fitting name for Aunt Grace because she was the most gracious of people. About 10 or 15 years ago, she and Walt were gracious enough to invite my family to stay with them in Redding for several days. We had a wonderful time swimming in their pool and catching up on family news. Grace cooked some tasty meals and we all had a great time. Aunt Grace and I found ourselves outside one hot summer night looking up at a sky full of stars. We talked for hours about the various stars and the amazing beauty of the night sky. She was delightful and her joy was contagious. To this day, I cannot go outside and look up at the night sky without thinking of Aunt Grace. Through the planets and stars we will always be connected, and for that I am most grateful."

I have been to a lot of funerals of older people and I noticed hers was different. Because she continued to be a vital, contributing person to all of us until the end, I feel the sorrow at her departure from this life was more keenly felt than most. You know how people always say that an older person "had good long life" and and then they seem resigned to their passing? I don't think it was that way with Grace....everyone wanted this lady to go on longer...much much longer. But now as the minister said...she and her memory belong to the ages...and to us as she lives on forever in our hearts. And she rests from all her labors until He comes again!

Grace's Favorite Scriptures:

John 3:16
Jeremiah 33:
I Peter 3:3, 4
Ephesians 4:32

She left a beautiful life history for her family. It is a hundred pages of pure pleasure and delight which I read on the way home. Her book is entitled:

"Our Ribbons of Time
Make our Rainbow of Life"

A few week ago I ran across this beautiful song...now it reminds me of Auntie Grace.
I want to be like her when I grow up!

Rebecca Gail Mattson Kritscher 1971~1998

Rebecca and Thomas

The Miracle of Her Motherhood

Dec 7, 1971 ~ February 22, 1998

Rebecca, mostly known as Becky, was born just a few months before our daughter, Jen.  Becky was the only child of Jim's only sibling, Gary.  Becky was the first grandchild in our family on both sides so she was quite the celebrated young lady, granting all kinds of new titles to mother and father, grandparents, aunts and uncles alike. Of course when our Jennifer was born they were in each other's lives from the beginning and grew to best friends over time and many shared experiences.  It is always very sad when any member of a family passes from this life but the sting is particularly poignant when it is a young person.  Becky's father, Gary died tragically in an accident when she was only three.  The little picture you see of her and Jennifer below was taken in the same year she lost her Daddy. 

When Becky was a junior in high school she was diagnosed with Hotchkin's disease.  Cancer and being 16 create a pretty hard pill to swallow.  This devastating illness took its toll on every member of our family, but especially her mother Gail, and her husband, Michael and their son Thomas, only two when his Mommy died.  Of course this crushed her Grandmothers, Jen and our other kids, Chris and Laura and Jim and me too.

Rebecca was a very spiritually mature young woman, far beyond her years really and she endured and thrived on her faith alone at times.  She did have remissions which allowed her to have a fairly normal happy adulthood after she had a bone marrow transplant when she was about 19 years old.  During those years she finished college, married, and had her beautiful baby boy.   That little boy was her miracle.  The joys she had helped her through some very harsh treatments and some very difficult days.  The scripture below from the Book of Mormon gave our little nuclear family great comfort after her passing.

"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection~

Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, 

as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, 

whether good or evil, are taken home to that God that gave them life.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest from all their troubles and from all cares and sorrow." Alma 40:11-12

 

Jennifer & Rebecca ~Both age 3

Best Buddies

Mother and Daughter, Gail and Becky
 The Growing Up Years
Gail deserves a lot of credit for going it alone, 
struggling and raising such a beautiful girl.  

 Becky had lots of wonderful qualities.  Aside from her spirituality she was very bright, loved art and was a gifted photographer.  She was witty and fun to be with and she had an infectious smile and laugh.  No one on earth made better frosted sugar cookies at Christmas than Becky.  She was so resilient and such a great example of making the best out of her life.    She and Jennifer had a great time attending their last two years of high school together.  It was a blessing that they were together.   Once Gail took them to Hawaii when they were teens and this became an epic memory for all concerned.  She loved learning and Cal Poly is her alma mater.  She met her husband, Michael, there at college and they had a beautiful wedding and a good solid marriage and sweet little family. 

Their son, Thomas, was the apple of her eye and she struggled hard in her last year to raise him well.  Towards the end of her life when it became apparent that her days were short and the cancer had come back full force, we witnessed such a strong faith in her and love for her Savior and acceptance of God's will for her life.  

One cannot imagine what kind of faith and courage that would take at 26, as she faced leaving her sweet husband and tiny son for a long time.  She was not bitter and resentful, she had struggled through it and made peace with it before she left us.  She was valiant and true and a wonderful example to all who knew her.  If she could see her son now (and I believe that she can) she would be most pleased.  He has become a very enchanting young man.  His dad has done a phenomenal job a raising him up.  He is planning for college now and has a brilliant future ahead of him. In this I know she rests in peace.

 Becky's Memory Lives on in Jen's Daughter

Miss Rebecca Piper

She even looks like her!

When Jennifer and Lowell had their first daughter, she was named her after her mom's beloved cousin and best friend. Although she is called Piper, she will point out quite often that her real name is Rebecca!  She is a lot like her namesake actually.  Beautiful and poised, mature beyond her years and very artistic.  They both were blessed with a creative style of their own.  Piper at 13 is sweet and well-loved just like her first cousin, once removed.  Miss Rebecca Gail and Miss Rebecca Piper have much in common and she has brought honor to her name.

We will always love and honor your memory, Becky!

You are missed and remembered with ardent affection 

by all of your family.

Rebecca Gail Mattson was born

December 7, 1971

in Walnut Creek, California 

She died on

February 22, 1998

in Concord, California

where she lived most of her life.

 She is buried in

Oakmont  Memorial Park

in

Lafayette, California

Jennifer's Girls and Rebecca's Thomas
Piper (on the right) is named after Rebecca.
They are all growing up too fast!
Easter 2013

Reflections from 2005 ~ Piper

Recently while cuddling in bed with our six-year-old granddaughter, Piper, she asked me what life was like when I was a little girl. It made me reflect on how my life is suddenly seeming long to me.

Looking back made me keenly aware of the changes that have taken place within me and the world I call my own. Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s was a cake walk compared to today and yet it was laced with trials and tribulations, excitement and great joy, hard work and fun times too. It was filled with love and learning, family, the perplexities of life and a boat load of boring days too.

Each era seems to have a unique way of molding and shaping us into who we are destined and desirous to become. One thing that has become apparent over the fifty something years I have lived is that each of us continues to learn, grow and change all of our lives. I am beginning to realize more and more that the essence of who we are also remains somewhat the same while our environment and our experiences create and hone the facets of each diamond in the rough.

As I thought about how my life was different than Piper’s as a little girl, I saw clearly that the changes are just as dramatic as those experienced by my grandparents and me. She was flabbergasted to know that when I was six we had just gotten our first black and white television. There were no microwaves, cell phones, Barbie Dolls, computers, video games, VCRs, DVDs, CDs, I-Pods, Palm Pilots, Videos, Air-conditioning in homes or cars, no electric hair dryers for home use, no fast food, and no huge abundant birthdays and Christmases.

She could not comprehend only having three or four dresses to wear to school and church and a few play clothes. I can still remember that in the fifth grade I had a blue dress with a drop waist and a rhinestone pin (perhaps the beginning of my fascination with bedazzlement) and a red plaid dress and that one week I would wear one of them three times and the next week two times. She didn’t comprehend why as a girl I could never wear pants to school, or that we washed our hair only once a week and went to bed with wet pin curls to have curly fluffy hair for church on Sundays. We didn’t have Wal*Mart and we didn’t just go shopping for stuff as entertainment. If we ever went out to dinner it was a very special occasion, not the twice weekly trip out the kids are use to these days. Dessert was also a very special treat, not a twice daily occurrence more as it can be today.  There was no such thing a junk food. 

When I was her age the dentists did not believe in using Novocaine on children and I can still remember the pain and terror of having my teeth, that were untreated by fluoride, drilled and filled. Life was more painful and less painful at times than today. It was harder in some ways because we didn’t have so many of the modern conveniences we now enjoy, but less complex because life was less complicated and less stressful. We didn’t have so many choices to make for every little thing.

Sometimes I find myself yearning for those days when I go to buy diapers, or ice cream or a cold remedy and have to filter through 80 choices. We didn’t have to read the labels on food to make sure we could recognize anything that was actually contained in the package as edible. In those days we could walk to the store alone or with a small friend and not fear pedophiles or kidnappers to the degree we do today. We didn’t need our own swimming pool, playing in the sprinkler was just great.

Ironically, with all the differences in our worlds of growing up, the essence of that little girl I held in my arms was not that different from me at her age. We both were sweet and innocent, had a longing to be pretty and feminine and to feel loved. We both wanted the attention of our parents, our grandparents and our teachers and friends. We both had a deep and inborn longing to one day meet Prince Charming and have a little family of our own. We both had an abundance of goodness within our hearts and a desire to please.

We were both the firstborn in our family and ladened with the responsibility to be a good example to our siblings. Sometimes we relished that and other times it was a burden we didn’t care to bear. Somehow, we accepted and carried out the role as best we could.

Somehow that role of the firstborn carries on for a life time. Piper is doing an excellent job. She is great with Julia and almost like a little mother to her baby sister, Chloe. She is sensitive and wants everyone to play by the rules. I am the same and it has hurt my heart a lot to know that people sometimes don’t care in the least bit how I feel nor do they live by the rules. People often just make up their own rules as they go along and fair or right has little to do with it. I hope that as Piper grows those painful learning experiences will be gentle on her kind and tender heart.

Piper loves being a girl. The pinker and frillier and more sparkle something has the better she likes it. She is my girl! She loves to dress up and have fairy dust on her little arms and to feel like the true Princess she is. I hope that as she grows she will continue to enjoy her femininity and that she will learn to love her body and enjoy it. I pray she never falls into the body image trappings of society like thinking she is too tall, too big, too white, too anything that causes her distress and makes her feel awkward or different or less beautiful than she is. I hope that a good and healthy self-concept just grows within her naturally and that she doesn’t struggle with it like so many do. I have not grown up with the luxury of that blessing. From my era I don’t think many girls have. I hope Piper’s generation is smarter.

Somehow, I saw in her hope for a bright future. She has a wonderful faith in the temple and a great desire to marry there one day. When she was tiny and didn’t quite understand marriage, she cried because she could not go right in and marry me in the temple one day as we were strolling by it. I tried to explain our sealing but I think it went over her little head then.

I hope that she can marry a man as wonderful as her Daddy and her Grandpas and that she can know the joy in her own family that I have had. I hope that her husband will cherish her and help her and love her as much as she deserves. Not because she will be perfect, but because she has a pure heart. That is just something you can see in a little girl’s eyes when you hold them close and snuggle up with them in the morning.

The joy that I felt when looking at her made me realize that one of the blessing of grand-parenthood is that there is a bit of ourselves that has the chance to vicariously do things over again. The mistakes I have made do not have to be hers, if I can teach her and share my cache of experiences and wisdom somehow. As my heart is turned to her I hope that hers will also be turned to me as she grows up. The more chances I have to cuddle up with her in the mornings now the better the outcome will be later. Those precious moments bond us together one little snuggle at a time.

It is so much fun to post various memories of our family and other special people.   Those that are very much alive and those who have passed beyond this life will be celebrated here with photos, videos, special stories and mini-bios of those who have passed beyond this life.

This blog will comprise a variety of memories, stories, old journal entries, mini-bios, photos, and other things regarding the most important people to have touched our lives.

 It is all about celebrating Once Upon Another Time with those we love.   It is all about our ancestors, our posterity, and maybe even some of our precious friends that have touched our lives with wonderful love and experiences.  They seem to pass effortlessly from treasured friends to adopted family.  The posts are placed in this blog in random order.  If the person is deceased I will put the vital stats at the end of their post.